


Having the courage to stay

by Bleppy



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bilingual Lance (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Cuban Lance (Voltron), Fluff and Angst, Gay Keith (Voltron), Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Hunk & Lance (Voltron) Friendship, Hunk (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Hunk (Voltron) is so Pure, Hurt Lance (Voltron), Insecure Lance (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Korean Keith (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, M/M, Minor Allura/Shiro (Voltron), Minor Hunk/Shay (Voltron), Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), klance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-04-21 14:41:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 25
Words: 36,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14287149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bleppy/pseuds/Bleppy
Summary: After losing his friends over a stupid fight and getting his family angry and disappointed, Lance decides to leave the small town, Long Grove. Despite him not having the best relationship with his parents, they still send him money every month so that he can survive, and he sends them a letter saying that he's alive in return. The letter always arrives the same day of every month, until one day. The 22 of August, the time of the annual apple festival, a familiar face shows up in Long Grove, a face that has not been seen in the last nine months. But is he really the happy boy that once left, or is he just the sad shell of what once was? What has changed him? Will he make an effort to get his friends back? One thing that is certain is that Lance is very good at hiding his emotions.





	1. Ch.1: Missing letters and apples

**Author's Note:**

> Jeez, I've read so much fanfiction but will be able to write it? read to find out. 
> 
> Basically, I just had this idea, and because I don't have a life I decided to try and write it down. Englis is not my first language so please forgive me for the horrendous grammar- and spelling mistakes I make.
> 
> (And I suppose that everyone reading this understands that I am not the owner of Voltron or the characters... Blah blah, all the cred goes to DreamWorks.)

**Chapter 1. Missing letters and apples**

 

22 of August 16:34

"Lucy, Maria, has one of you seen the letter from Lance? it was supposed to come today." The kind looking woman asked her two daughters. Both of them shook their heads in response, not looking away from the tv in front of them. "Are you sure? he said that this letter would obtain the papers for his new school..." The woman said anxiously. The elder girl sat up on the couch and looked her mother in the eyes, " _Mamà!_ we said no! why do you ever worry? It's probably just a bit late, it'll be here tomorrow!" she said with a tone of irritation in her voice. "And besides, why don't you just ask him to come home already, you give him too much freedom! Lance is never going to come home if you continue like this!" Maria continued as she sat back on the couch. 

The girls' mother let out a faint sigh, they had been over this many times already, they had decided to let Lance take his time. Yes, she was disappointed but she could never stop loving him, and loving him meant making him happy, and if it was the freedom that would make him happy she would grant him that wish. She always knew where he was, of course, she knew his location and his school. She got Lances grade reports and was constantly updated on how he was in school. But other than that she didn't know much about the stuff going on in lances life.

M. McClain made her way to the bedroom that belonged to her and her husband and took last months letter in her hands.

 

_Dear Mama,_

 

_I miss you, I don't know how much longer I will be able to stay away from you._

_I know that I was wrong and I really regret my actions, I wish that I could undo everything._

_It's nice here in California, the people are welcoming and I've made lots of new friends. I'm moving soon again though, I haven't found anything that feels like home yet. I've found a place to stay that is not too expensive, and it's closer to you. I'll send you the papers for my new school in my next letter, sorry again for not using a phone, but I don't feel the need of having one. I still remember your number by heart, I really hope that I can meet you soon again._

_Te Amo, Lance._

 

This letter contained more of lances thoughts and feelings than all the other letters together, she cried the first time she read it and realized how much she really missed her son. She had hoped that this months letter would be like the last one and had counted down the days, only to be disappointed on the actual day when it was supposed to arrive.

 _"Mamà!_ we have to get ready for the apple festival!" The middle-aged woman's youngest son came rushing into the room and threw himself into his mother's arms.

She chuckled and lifted her son up in her arms after carefully putting away Lances letter on the small table on her right. "Alright, _Chiquito!"_ she smiled and stood up with Leo in her arms

 

22 of August 17.21

 

There could be spotted apples in every direction walking around the apple festival, this years festival was special because the town had been able to afford something special. There were candy floss and popcorn on sale, shooting games that rewarded prises for a win, several small games like fishing apples with your mouth and the best of all the new addition that amazed everyone, a huge Ferris wheel that lit up in different colors as it got dark.

The McClain family was more than excited, they had just entered the festival and M. McClain children were already gone, the elder ones were hanging around with their friends and Leo had gone off with his father to test their luck in the shooting games.

Usually, Lance would take Leo with him to try the shooting games. Lance would always buy tree balls and he would let Leo try with the first two balls, Leo would never actually get down any cans but he thought it was fun to try, and then Lance would use the last ball to get Leo the prize he wanted, Lance, being such an amazing shot he always succeeded.

Lance had always loved the apple festival, he loved the chocolate drenched apples sold, he would buy a stack of them to have for the upcoming days. Lances mother really wished that her son could be there in that moment, she missed him so much. Sometimes she couldn't take him off her mind.

Suddenly Leo ran past her, tears were rolling down his cheeks and he kept shouting "NO!". She tried to stop him but felt something collide with her and she fell to the ground. She heard her husband cursing above her before helping her up to her feet.

"What is going on, what is wrong with Leo?" She asked as she wiped off the dust from her skirt and started walking in the direction in which Leo went running. "I'm sorry  _Hermosa_ , I don't know, he had missed his two first balls and missed, then he gave me the last ball and when I missed he just started crying and shouting for Lance." 

Leo was probably one of those who missed Lance the most, they were always really close and Lance could always put a smile on Leo's face. When Lance left, Leo felt very lonely. Leo was the only one who had gotten to talk to Lance who once called home from a public phone, he asked for Leo and refused to talk to anyone as much as Leo refused to tell anyone what they had talked about.

"We need to find him before he leaves the festival and gets lost." Leo's mother said to her husband and they went off, calling his name.

After ten minutes Ms. McClain started to get really worried, she had told her daughters to search for Leo as well, but no one had seen him. 

" Ms. McClain, are you alright?" She heard a soft voice ask her and she turned around, there stood Hunk Garett with hid two mothers. 

The McClain and the Garett family have always been close, Lance and Hunk had been friends since they were unable to talk. They have dinner together every Sunday and game night once a month. When Lance was fighting with his friends this didn't stop, Lance was just not invited. Later on, Ms. McClain had regretted this decision because it probably made him feel alone and forgotten. Lances mother often felt guilty for lance leaving, like it was her fault that he didn't feel welcome in his own home.

"No, not really Hunk sweetheart, Leo got sad and ran away and now we can't find him" The brown haired woman pinched the top of her nose and looked down at her shoes.

"Oh, God!" Hunks mother Matilda exclaimed, "we must help you look for him!" Ms.McClain was just about to thank her when a familiar voice shouted "No! I missed again!" It was Leo. 

Hunk and his mothers followed Leo's mother towards the shooting games. Once there, she spotted Leo's back and she was just about to run to him when another voice made her flinch. "It's fine  _Mi Cielito_ , I'll get you the lion I promise" It was the voice that belonged to her son, the son that she had missed for the last nine months. She glanced over at Hunk and his family, they all had their mouth hanging down agape. "Olivia is that...?" Hunk asked the mother of the two boys standing in front of them "Yes." she answered, her voice breaking. 

A clash of metal reached their ears and Leo cheered loudly. "The blue lion please!" Lance asked the man standing in the booth. Leo received the lion and hugged it tight before jumping on Lance and giving him a hug as well. 

The two brothers took each other's hands and made their way away from the stands. Lance was wearing a plain white tank top with a pair of sunglasses hanging from it and grey jeans-shorts reaching his knees, on his feet he had a pair of blue converse, Olivia immediately noticed that her son's style had changed a lot in nine months, as well as his appearance in general. Lances hair was much shorter, his hair no longer fell in his face covering it, he had more muscles, not that much but his arms were no longer noodles. Lance was more tanned than usual and he wore lots of bracelets around his wrists. It seemed like he had gotten taller.

Olivia felt like crying, there was her son, her beloved son that she had missed so much. Lance suddenly met her gaze and smile, a warm shining smile. 

" _Hola mamà."_

 


	2. Ch.2 I'm not ready to go home yet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance talks with Hunk, the sweet forgiving cinnamon roll. Ft. INSECURITIES.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol, the second chapter, I'm sorry. Hope you enjoy. Is it okay, is it not weird and awful? I hope not! :)

Ch. 2 I'm not ready to go home yet

22 of August 17.54

 

”Hola mamá,” Lance said and lifted his hands in a small wave. Before he had the time to blink his mother was in his arms, crying.  
He wrapped his own arms around her and whispered in her ear “I’m here now, I’ve missed you so much...”

They partes the hug and Olivia wiped away her tears and shot lance a warm smile before grabbing him by the ear and scolding him for the lack of information about him and his life. After that lance apologized about a hundred times, they hugged again and Lance’s mother told him to stay with Leo while she looked for the rest of her family.

Hunks mothers, Lydia and Matilda, were now hugging him and telling him how much they missed his jokes during game night and his famous red velvet cupcakes for dessert at dinner. They had never known about any fight, they thought that Lance left because of some échange program. Everyone that knew, also knew that is would be best that way. Hunks mothers were fond of Lance and no one wanted them to be hurt.

Hunk had not said anything in a long time. He stood a couple of feet away from Lance, staring down at his shoes when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up and met a pair of ocean blue eyes and a smile.  
“Hey buddy, I know it’s been a long time and that you’re probably still mad at me, and I am not asking for you to forgive me. Not at all, all I want is a chance to explain.” Lance said, breaking his eye contact with Hunk.

Hunk almost never got angry, he was what Lance describes as a ‘sweet cinnamon roll’, but when it had something to do with his friends he could get furious. Lance was his friend, but Lance also hurt his friends and Hunk did not accept that.

Hunk always thought that Lance would come crawling back and apologize after a week or two, and if he had done that Hunk would not have hesitated to forgive him. They had been best friends since kindergarten after all. Hunk didn’t understand why Lance left, the fight was not that big of a deal. Lance didn’t leave because of the fight, Hunk knew that it was because of something else.

Two weeks after that Lance left Long Grove, Hunk forgave Lance. Hunk knew Lance, he saw Lance’s face during the fight and he caught glances of it afterward. Hunk knew that Lance didn’t mean the things that came out of his mouth that day. He was not like his other friends, because Hunk didn’t despise Lance for what he said, but for hurting his friends.  
But when Hunk realized that Lance must have been hurting a lot since that fight, he forgave him. No one wanted to admit that they missed Lance. But Hunk probably missed him the most.

Without blinking, Hunk jumped at Lance and embraced him. Hunk was an emotional mess after not seeing his friends for nine months. NINE MONTHS, that is a really long time!  
Hunk sniffled “I forgive you! Please don’t ever leave again! I had to ask Pidge to try my new food, and she never took it seriously! IT WAS SO HARD LANCE!” He cried, hugging his friend harder.

“I missed you too buddy, I swear that I will be the one to try your cookies in the future” Lance answered, happy that his friend had forgiven him.

“I’ll convince the others to forgive you, I’m sure you didn’t mean what you said. I promise everything is going to be normal again. We can all be friends again!” The big guy in the yellow t-shirt said.

Lance broke away from the hug and shot Hunk a sad look. ”Thank you Hunk, but I have to apologize, you can't do it for me. This is my mess and I need to fix it. Sadly, nothing is ever going to go back to the way it was.” Lance sighed ”It will be different in the future, not necessarily a bad different, but different. I will try to regain your trust, I promise, I can’t lose all of you. When I was gone, I realized how much i need you, all of you.”.

Hunk nodded, he understood how Lance felt and that he needed to do this himself. “What have you been up to all this time?” Hunk asked his tanned friend.  
“I can’t tell you that now, a lot has happened, I’ve been at a lot of places. But I really need to sort things out.” The tanned boy answered and Hunk nodded once again, he didn’t know what he could say.

22 of August 18.26

After that Lance greeted the rest of his family with hugs, tears, and scolding, mostly from his sisters, Lance reached down his pocket and handed a letter to his mother. “I didn’t have the time to send you this so I decided to give it to you directly.”

His mother smiled and opened the letter:

Hola mamá,

I will see you soon, I hope that you’re ready to forgive me. I still don’t forgive myself for what I said and did, but I am going to try and fix everything.

If you haven’t understood yet, I’m coming back home. Here is the address where I will be staying during the first weeks. Summer road 39, 1060, Long Grove, Illinois. I am can’t come home just yet, I’m sorry. Do not worry about the rent, I have the money that you sent me left and I managed to get a part-time job.

Do not get me wrong, I really, really want to go back an life with all of you, but I need some time to think and to clear my head. It’s only for a couple of weeks I swear!

Don’t be angry, please.

I’ll meet you on the first day of the apple festival, I wouldn’t miss it for anything in the world. And I wouldn’t want Leo to miss out on a prize that he wants.

As for the schools, I’ll go back to Long Grove High. I need to sort things out with my friends, I am really miserable without them.

I’ll see you soon,

Love, Lance.

Olivia looked up at her son, a million questions in her head. “You’re not staying at home?! And how do you have all the money we sent you left?! It was barely enough for anything! If anything you should have lots of debts by now!”

She wanted to understand, the lack of information had driven her crazy. She knew that she was supposed to be more strict but all she wanted was for her son to be happy.

“Mamá! Calm down! I managed to find small jobs that allowed me to pay rent and buy food. And I just need space to think, so much has happened while I was away and I just need a couple of weeks to process all of that! I know that it’s probably hard to understand but I’m begging you! You can take all of the money back, I can pay for myself! Just please let me stay!” Lance pled, his voice breaking in the end and bringing his hands together.

His voice sounded anxious. Lance’s mother was almost scared, it wasn’t like Lance to act like this. Was there something wrong?

She sighed and gave him a firm look. “Maximum two weeks,” she said, lifting two fingers to make the message clear “I want you home before the apple festival ends, so you have two weeks!”

Lance looked up at her with a wide smile, “You can’t imagine how much this means to me mamá, thank you so much”

Ms.McClain was once again very confused, where was the son that would groan and ask for an extra week? Something wasn’t right.

22 of August 19.03

After a little more than half an hour, Lance made his way home.  
He was hoping that he appeared like his usual self, but truth to be told, his old self was probably buried somewhere deep inside of him. He doubted everything, especially himself.

He didn’t want to go home directly because he doubted his ability as a big brother, as a brother as usual. He felt like it was impossible for him to get his friends back, he knew them.

Pidge has probably tried to kill him with black magic a couple of times already, and Keith probably throws knives at his photo on the wall. And he didn’t even want to think about Shiro and Allura, they would probably murder him on the spot if they saw him.

Lance pulled out the key from his pocket and opened the door to the apartment that he rented, it was pretty small but really convenient. The furniture was already there when he got there if he had to buy furniture for the apartments that he rented he would not have the money to rent them. He always made sure to only rent apartments for a few weeks maximum, often when the original owner was gone. It was cheaper and easier.

Lance took of his shoes, school would start tomorrow, he only needed his parents to sign a few papers, which they would do tonight, and he would be good to go tomorrow.

He was not worried for his grades, he got average grades which he was happy with and he would definitely be able to hold them up until he graduated.

He was worried about his friends, or ex-friends, he was worried about Keith. Stupid, pretty, cute, mulleted Keith. The main reason he left and the main reason why he came back.

Lance sighed at the thought and threw himself on the bed, quickly drifting to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, I hope that that was okay! Leave a kudos? I don't even know what that is?
> 
> Have a good one!
> 
> I wrote this on my phone so some things are not underlined etc... I'll fix that on my laptop when I have the time!


	3. Ch.3 How long can it take to get to class?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lace makes his way to his first class, but it takes a lot of time.(like is it even possible for it to take so long??) Ft. Lotor that stole Lance’s favorite toy in kindergarten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry, this chapter is literally nothing, thare is nothing important in here. I really needed it to be like this for the next chapter though, bc I try to maintain about the same length on the chapters. 
> 
> Oh and yeah, I don’t like Lotor. HE IS FOE, but maybe a friend I am just very confused.

Ch. 3 How long can it take to get to class?

23 of August 08.17

Lance had left the apartment around eight in the morning, the walk to school took around ten minutes and now he was walking towards the principals office. 

Fortunately, he was able to get into the school last minute, but only because his father knew the principal. They had been childhood friends, and the reason that Lance knew Allura.  
Since he joined the school last minute, his timetables and everything was to pick up immediately in principal Alfors office. 

Lance carefully knocked twice before opening the door. “Lance McClain, it’s been a while” the white haired man said as Lance entered the room, at the same time the bell rung.  
“It certainly has.” Lance answered, taking a look around the room. The room looked like it always had, baby blue walls with framemot pictures hanging on the walls and standing on the principals desk.  
“I see that your grades have improved.” The tanned man states, looking down at his papers. 

“I haven’t had as many things distracting me.” Lance answers. The principal looks up and meets Lance’s gaze. “Listen Lance,” he sighs, “I like you, and I don’t want to get involved in your business, but I really think that you have to-“ he starts but gets cut off “Clean up my mess, I know. And I promise that I’ll try.” Lance finishes, looking down at his feet. 

“I trust you Lance, remember that you can always come to me with your problems. Even if things are difficult now you have always been a good friend to my daughter.” Alfor said as he handed Lance his timetable, his locker combination and other important papers.

“Thank you.” Lance smiled, not his usual happy smile though, this smile was sadder. It seemed like he tried to hide behind a facade instead of showing his emotions.   
Lance said goodbye and made his way to the classroom. It felt like ages ago he walked within these walls, but in reality it was only nine months. 

Lance was still unsure about leaving Long Grove, was it the right thing to do or should he just have put up with being ignored and stayed? Lance put his hand over his eyes and groaned. Why did everything have to be so complicated?

The halls were almost empty by now. Lance looked down at his timetable, he had English now, in classroom 149. His Teacher, Mr. Coran, had to be new because he didn’t recognize the name at all. 

Lance was just about to look up when he bumped in to something, or rather someone. “What do we have here, isn’t it little Lance? Did you finally decide to stop running away?” A smug voice said. This was the one person Lance really didn’t want to meet today, lance sighed. “Hello Lotor.” 

The creature with the flawless hair snickered, “Not so cocky anymore, huh?” Lance made a mental note to just ignore Lotor if he ever tried to talk to him again. 

“I would have said ‘Fuck off’, but I just felt like being nice for once.” Lance smiled, the smile was wide and entirely fake. 

“There is my boy!” Lotor said and ruffled Lance’s hair. Lance had to hold himself back to not bite the tall boy’s hand. “I really need to get to class now, so if you could excuse me, I really don’t want to be super late on the first day.” Lance said and tried to walk past Lotor, but it wasn’t that easy. Lotor grabbed Lance by his collar and slammed him against the wall of lockers. 

“Why, don’t leave just yet Lance, I thought that we could have a little fun together you and me~” Lotor said as he brought his face closer to Lance’s. “Stop! Could you just let me go already?!” Lance snapped, anger rising inside of him.

“Oh yeah that’s right!” Lotor said, “I’ve heard that you’re supposedly a homophobe now right? Silly me! I forgot!” The boy in the purple jacket smiled, a very cocky smile. 

Lance had always hated Lotor. Lance clearly remembers that Lotor had stolen his Superman figurine in kindergarten. The Superman figurine was Lance’s favorite toy! You can’t imagine how much he cried when he thought that he had lost it. Then he saw Lotor playing with it the day after and he got so angry! It all ended with Lance crying in a corner after that his teacher and mother had scolded him, you can certainly imagine why. 

But right now Lance didn’t want to fight, he knew that Lotor wanted to get him angry and do something completely idiotic. “Please, would you let me go to class?” Lance asked, staring into Lotor’s eyes and not breaking eye contact. 

Lotor looked surprised like he had not expected this kind of reaction from Lance. “Umm...-“ He started “Please! I don’t want to miss the first period.” Lance pled again, still not breaking eye contact. 

“Fine! Yes! Run to class! what are you? A nerd?” Lotor said, putting his hands in his pockets and kicking something invisible on the floor. 

Lance shot one last look on his papers and continued in the direction of his classroom. He was thinking that the change that he had been through maybe wasn’t that bad after all, it sure made Lotor rather uncomfortable. Lance was like a completely different person, though when he realized that he wasn’t really happy, more scared. Was the old Lance still there or was he completely gone? Would he ever come back, which Lance was the best Lance? Had he lost the only good part of himself that was left or the only bad part left. 

Well, Lance knew for sure that is certainly wasn’t the second option!

Lance spotted the classroom that he was headed to and took a deep breath looking at his watch. 08:56, he was 25 minutes late, so much for a good first impression. ‘Mr. Coran’ was most likely going to hate him now.

“Well, here goes nothing.” Lance murmured before pulling the door open, not bothering to knock. At this point, knocking didn’t matter.

“Ah! You must be the new student!” A middle aged man with a very fancy, orange mustache said when lance opened the door to the classroom. 

Lance thought that Mr.Coran would be furious like all his other teachers, literally, no teacher really liked Lance. According to the teachers he was to loud and lazy. 

“Um... Yeah, and you’re Mr.Coran?” Lance asked carefully. “Please! Call me Coran! No need for formality in my class!” He said and twirled his mustache in between his fingers. 

“Wait!” Lance said, “your name is ‘Coran Coran’?!” He asked close to laughter.   
“Effectively, my name is Coran Coran the third and I am your English teacher for the year!” The ginger smiled. 

Lance laughed, something that he hadn’t done in a long time. It felt good, Lance felt like he was somehow getting better, but from what? Why did he feel like this was such a big thing?

“Well I’m Lance McClain.” Lance smiled at Coran and shook his hand. “Pleasure making your acquaintance sir!” He continued as his smile grew wider.

“Well, Lance, we have just finished our presentations in this class, you’re the only one left, so why don’t you take a minute to present yourself?” Coran asked.

Lance turned around to see that the whole class was staring at him, had they seen everything? GOD! Now Lance felt embarrassed! 

The advanced English class was not that big, maximum seventeen students were sitting down in the classroom. Lance realized that he had talked to almost everyone, no that he knew almost everyone. He also realized that all the attention was not on him. A few students in the back were reading or sleeping, and two of them were having a discussion, or a debate. The two students were talking and waving around their arms and hands. 

Lance knew exactly what they were doing, in fact, they were probably having a complicated discussion about the most stupid thing ever. How does he know that you may ask, and the answer is simple? If you have known someone for a really long time, you usually understand them, and Lance had known these people for a really long time, at least since the beginning of middle school, probably even longer. 

He smiled as he saw the raven-haired boy lay his head on the desk in defeat as Pidge smiled a smug and evil smile. 

“Lance? Were you going to introduce yourself? It is very important that we can all be friends here in this class. And-“ Coran said placing a hand on Lance’s shoulder. 

“Yes, I’m sorry. I got lost I thought, ” Lance answered, “I’m Lance McClain, most of you probably recognize me. I’ve lived here my whole life and I’ve gone to this school. I see lots of familiar faces. I don’t know if you recognize me though, l think I look quite different from when I left town, at least that’s what people say.” As ‘Shake it off’ was playing in Lance’s mind after saying that last sentence he noticed two people staring at him, with the look of confusion on their faces. 

At that moment Lance realized how hard it would be to fix everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again: sorry for the useless chapter.
> 
> Did you get the song reference? If you did, I love you.
> 
> You got a hint about ‘the fight’ in this chapter, and guess what’s coming in the next one? THATS RIGHT! It’s the fight, the next chapter will be mostly Keith/Pidges perspective. 
> 
> And I’m sorry that everything is happening so slow (especially this chapter) and I promise that it’ll move faster in the future!


	4. Ch.4 The fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A flashback to ‘The fight’ in Keith’s perspective and Lance starts working at the cafe/bakery called ‘The Balmera’.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is longer than the others and stuff actually happens in this one!  
> The fight, jeez, I don’t know if I’m that good at describing fights but at least I tried.

Ch. 4 The fight

”I hate you...” Keith muttered his head on the table. ”You should know better than to pick fights with me, especially if it's about science!” Pidge said, grinning and patting Keith on the back.

A pretty laugh echoed in the room as Keith let out a sigh. ”What is going on there in the front?” Keith asked. When he didn't get a response he lifted his head and looked at Pidge. They were staring at something in front of them with a shocked facial expression. Keith turned to look in the direction of Pidge’s confused glance. After seeing what Pidge was staring at he wished that he had stayed with his head tilted downwards against the table. 

He was more stunning than ever. He had cut his hair, and it really brought forward his eyes, these deep, blue oceans that he so easily got lost in. His sun-kissed skin was as perfect as ever. It was that perfect, stupid face that Keith wanted to erase totally from his mind. ”Fuck...” He and Pidge whispered in unison.

-About nine months earlier-

Keith had not been able to sleep, he had been dreading the day that would come after the night. This was the day, he had been planning this for weeks. Keith, Lance, Shiro, Pidge, Hunk, and Allura were all having a sleepover, and Keith had been thinking that this would be the perfect moment to share his darkest secret with his friends. 

He knew exactly how he would reveal it. First of all, he would start a game of Truth or dare and based on what he knew about his friends and by the way Pidge had been teasing him recently, he was almost certain that he would get a question about his sexuality. As far as Keith knew, there was no one within his group of friends that had anything against gay people at all. Hunk had two mom's and no one had ever questioned that before. 

Keith continued to tell himself that everything was fine, the worst that could happen was Pidge making more jokes about him and his sexuality, but he would not lose anything.

At least, that was what Keith thought until he put his plan into action.

”Keith! Truth or dare?” Pidge smirked and wiggled her eyebrows. Keith smiled, it was now or never. ”Truth”, he answered and loud ”Ohhhh”’s could be heard through the room. 

”Okay then, ” Pidge grinned and clapped her hands together. ”why don't you tell us if you really are straight like you always say??” Pidge continued and laughter echoed through the small room. ”The answer is no.” Keith smiled, trying to look as confident as he could but almost having a panic attack on the inside. 

The room went silent, ”what?” Lance asked. Keith looked at the tanned boy, he who had made Keith realize the fact that he was a homosexual. Keith had been crushing on the boy for a very long time and seeing Lance staring at him with those eyes, eyes with a look that he had never seen before. Lance’s eyes looked confused and judging, they made Keith feel weak and small as he tried to uphold his facade. 

”I'm gay,” Keith said, no longer with a smile on his face, not breaking eye contact with Lance. 

”Dude! That's amazing, I've kind of always known, but it's nice of you to tell us.” Hunk smiled. Everyone else congratulated him as well, not that he had won or accomplished anything though, well everyone except Lance. Lance continued to stare at him, frozen without saying a word. 

”you're... Gay?” Lance finally asked. Everyone turned around to look at him, Lance’s facial expression was almost impossible to determine, disgust? Confusion? Anger? Frustration? Keith didn't know, the only thing that Keith knew was that when Lance said those words, he said them in a tone that meant disgust. 

”Is there anything wrong with that Lance?” Allura asked in an irritated tone. This was one of those moments when no one could tell if Lance was being serious or just kidding to make the others angry. Keith looked around at his friends, their expressions had changed as well, everyone was staring at Lance, waiting for an answer.

”Of course there is!” Lance exclaimed throwing his arms out. Keith was supposed to be the tough guy, nothing could break him. He was tall, strong and really salty sometimes if needed. But this, this broke Keith’s walls, his hands were shaking slightly as he looked up at the angry looking boy that was supposed to be his friend. 

Keith's other friends had begun shouting and arguing with Lance. Shiro had taken a fast grip around Lances collar and pushed him against the wall. Shirk was one of Keith’s closest friends and he was the first of them to get to know about Keith’s past, ever since then he had been extremely protective about Keith, not wanting anything to hurt him ever again. 

Keith hated seeing all his friends like this, arguing and fighting, he just wanted it all to end. 

”STOP IT!” the raven-haired boy shouted. Everyone in the room turned their heads towards him. ”Shiro, please let Lance go,” Keith said, holding back the tears as they stung his eyes. ”b..but-” Shiro tried to argue but was cut off. ”I DON’T WANT ANYONE TO DIE IN MY APARTMENT SO PLEASE LET LANCE GO!” Keith was furious, he didn't know why, nor who the anger was directed at. Was it toward Lance or his friends? 

”Please leave Lance, I never want to see you again. If you're not ready to accept me then you're not ready to be my friend either!” Keith said and looked at Lance.

What happened next is something that would keep Keith awake at night thinking. Lances eyes looked so sad, it looked like he was about to cry. Lance had that pleading look that he would bring out when he asked for a sip of Keith’s milkshake. Lance's eyes looked like they wanted something entirely different than his mouth. ”Fine, I wouldn't want to spend time with someone like you anyway!” he snapped, and that was it for Shiro. Before anyone could blink Shiro was all over him, throwing punches here and there and shouting. It took the time for the others to pull Shiro away from Lance and for Lance to reassemble his stuff, not saying a word, and leave for Shiro to finally be calm again. 

Keith felt something warm on his cheeks and realized that he was crying. Warm tears were burning his cheeks. It was a long time since Keith last cried and he hated it.

After that fight, neither Keith or the rest of his friends saw Lance in a really long time. 

-about nine months later-

”Why is he back?! Omg, do you think that Shiro is going to kill him?” Pidge asked. Keith stayed silent, he didn't know what to do, he couldn't look away from the beautiful boy in front of the class. Lance turned his head and met Keith’s gaze, Lance’s smile vanished and he stood silent for a few seconds before breaking away from their eye contact and getting to his seat. 

23 of August 12:37

Keith and Pidge had left the classroom as fast as possible. Lance had seen on the look on their faces that they were not that happy about his arrival. 

Lance was on his way to the cafeteria when he passed by the music room. It was Monday and on Mondays, all of his friends would reassemble in the music room for lunch. Usually, Hunk would prepare an amazing lunch for everyone that they would eat while discussing the following week's plan and any new gossip. Lance could only guess what they were currently talking about but he wanted to make sure.

Lance pressed himself against the wall beside the door and listened. 

”Listen, you guys! I am not lying! Keith! tell them that we saw Lance. HE WAS IN OUR ENGLISH CLASS!” Pidge said loudly. ”Pidge, no one knows where Lance is except his parents. There is no way that he's back and we don't already know about it. Hunk lives next to him! And Hunk has not seen him. Right Hunk?” Shiro argued. Lance has always found Shiro’s mindset entertaining, ”If I can't see it then it's not real.” it's what Shiro always says.

”Well actually, ” hunk said, eating the last part of his sandwich, ”I met Lance at the apple festival yesterday, he's back in town but he's not living with his parents. 

Lance sighed, Hunk had promised him to not tell anyone about their encounter at the apple festival but he should have known better. Hunk was absolutely terrible at keeping secrets.

The music room went silent, and Lance felt like this was a good opportunity to leave. 

23 of August 14:56

Lance ended up having lunch with Rolo and Nyma, two of his friends before he left. They were the first ones to actually talk to lance since Lotor. Even if Rolo and Nyma weren't as close to him as the others he was still very happy that someone was talking to him. 

After school, Lance made his way home to drop off his things, he was going to visit the bakery/cafe where he would be working. It was called ’The Balmera’ and was Long Grove’s mall’s newest addition. 

When Lance got home he threw his backpack on the bed and grabbed a jacket. Even if it was warm now, he didn't know how long he would stay at The Balmera and if the way home would be as warm. 

It wasn't a long walk, he had applied to The Balmera mostly because it was near his apartment.

When Lance entered the bakery, an amazing smell overtook him. ”Hi! You must be Lance, the new employee.”. Lance turned his head towards the voice and saw a girl with enormous gold earrings. ”Yes.” Lance smiled and shook the girl's hand, ”And you are...?” he asked and the girl laughed. 

”Oops! Sorry for not introducing myself. I'm Shay, my grandma owns the bakery.” The girl smiled. 

Lance followed Shay into the kitchen and met Ms.Balmera, Shays grandma. He got to know that his job was to decorate pastries and then pack them in colorful boxes if there were any orders or takeaways, while Shay was taking care of the customers and then they would switch places after a few hours. After that, the bakery closed, he and Shay would decide who stayed behind to clean up and who got to go home. 

Lance also learned that the name of the cafe was because Shay had always thought that her last name sounded like it could be the name of a planet and that it was Shay’s grandmother that stood for all the baking.

The Bakery was not that big, with only three people working there it's obvious, but Lance felt like he would be really happy working there. At least he hopes that he would be happy, he had almost forgotten what that word meant. 

Shay and her grandmother had asked if he was really okay with working every day with the homework and tests he would have. He assured them that if it became too much for him to handle he would tell them and they could ask Shay’s brother to work instead of him. When he asked how Shay handled her schoolwork, she answered that when they lived in New York, they had a small bakery as well, but that that one was much busier but that she still managed to handle school on the side, she was used to it.

When Lance was walking home, it was already dark outside and he was glad that he had taken his jacket with him.  
Lance kept thinking that everything would turn out all right, after all, everything would be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there! Did you enjoy this chapter? If you did I think that you should listen to this gr8 playlist on Spotify. It’s called “memes” and you can find all the best musical materpieces in there! 
> 
> Anyways, if you likes the chapter Please do somethin, you can do whatever you want, I promise that I Will not judge you.


	5. Ch.5 Dance battle ft. Taylor Swift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Listen to ‘You Belong with me’ by Taylor Swift while reading. It has nothing to do with the story but they are going to dance to that song! 
> 
> Also: First encounter with the others since the fights for Lance. HOW WILL IT GO?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like this chapter, it’s longer than the others! I hope that you’ll like it!

Ch. 5 Dance battle ft. Taylor Swift

29 of August 10:37

One week had gone by since Lance came back to town. In one week Lance would have to move back to his parents. He had worked in The Balmera every day after school and he loved it, since the cafe was still pretty new, there wasn’t that much business so Lance could take it easy and finish most of his homework while working.

Lance had learned that Shay was quite shy and that she had not really made any friends yet, so Lance offered for her to be with him, Rolo and Nyma. They were all supposed to meet up at The Balmere in an hour, but Lance just couldn’t seem to get out of bed.

His mind kept going back to the last sleepover he had with his friends. Oh how Lance regretted the things that he said.

The fight itself wasn’t that bad, nothing he said was acceptable but it was just the normal homophobic insults. If he would have just manned up and explained nothing would be like this. Instead he continued. Messages, notes, judging stares, there were a lot of things that Lance wanted to forget. Lance knew that his group of friends probably had expected him to crawl back and beg them to forgive him, and that it really surprised them when he didn’t. 

Lance had no idea why he did what he did, he wasn’t homophobic. Or was he? He had never had anything against gay people, he had cried when Hunks moms finally got married. 

Lance had always been unsure about his own sexuality and he hated being confused and unsure. He had decided to be straight so that he would stop wondering about it, so he pushed away the thoughts he got when he saw Keith, there was no use to even try when he thought that Keith was straight. 

When Keith came out, all these questions about who he was and who he liked came flushing over him. Keith looked as pretty as ever and Lance thought about how bad he wanted to kiss that pretty face. But when he realized what he was thinking about, he got furious. Lance wasn’t supposed to think like that, he had pushed away the thought of him liking Keith for years. It took so long to convince himself that he was straight and now everything came back in a matter of seconds. Lance wasn’t ready, not at all so he reacted like he did. 

Confusion, something that you feel regularly, when you read a word that you don’t understand or when you can’t solve a maths problem. It seems pretty innocent but the truth is that it can lead to terrible things. 

Lance buried his head in his pillow and screamed in frustration. If he could just turn back time. Soon enough, Lance needed to breathe so he lifted his head and looked at his watch. If he wanted to take a shower and get to the Balmera on time he needed to get up. So Lance did what he did every other day, locked in his feelings deep inside of himself and smiled, sometimes he felt like his cheeks were close to breaking.

29 of August 11:02

The bell situated at the door rang as Lance entered the cafe. “Hey Lance!what’s up?” Rolo was sitting on one of the tables, swinging his legs back an fourth. “Nothing much, where is Nyma?” Lance asked, taking off his jacket and hanging it on one of the hangers. 

“I’m in the kitchen with Shay!” A voice that resembled Nyma’s said from the kitchen quickly followed by another one.   
“Lance, good you’re finally here, you can take care of the customers while Rolo packs the pastries for delivery or takeaway. Grandma is not here today so Nyma is helping me to bake and decorate.” 

Lance nodded even though Shay couldn’t see him and put on his pink apron with the bakery’s logo on it. 

“Can we put on some music?” Rolo asked with his phone in his hand, clearly on Spotify. ”Yeah sure,” Shay answered ”but you have to turen it Done when there are customers.” Rolo mumbled something resembling an ‘okay fine’ and went to the speaker behind the counter to plug in his phone. 

“Any requests?” Rolo asked looking at Lance, whose eyes seemed to lit up. “Oh my god, I know the perfect song!” Lance said smiling in excitement, “Do you know the song ‘You belong with me’, by Taylor Swift?” Rolo looked really confused at first but then it seemed like he understood. “Nyma, is that the song that you’re always dancing to when I am trying to study?” He asked and Nymas head popped out of the door to the kitchen. “It’s my jam, play it loud!” Nyma smirked and walked out of the kitchen and standing besides Lance, looking him right in the eyes “I challenge you to a dance-off” she said in all seriousness and it took Lance everything he had to not burst out in laughter. 

Nyma wasn’t necessarily funny, but Lance felt happy, he had hope. The past week had been good, he enjoyed spending time with Rola and Nyma and Shay as much as he enjoyed working in the bakery. He felt like he was in the right place, he still had problems in need of solutions, but he could take his time. He wanted to take it easy for a while and not rush in to things, he was afraid of ruining them if he did, he had just come back and he didn’t want to jump right into the people he had left’s lives. So he took his time, his time to adjust and to be happy, or try in most situations, but now he was happy.

“I accept!” Lance said in a similar tone to Nyma’s, holding out his hand for her to shake it. “Me and Shay will be the judges!” Rolo said, and Shay came out of the kitchen. “I just took out the red velvet cupcakes from the oven, I guess that we could take a pause while waiting for them to cool..” Shay said smiling wide. 

“Let’s get this started, but first, let’s move to the kitchen!” Nyma said, earning confused looks from the others “oh come on! The kitchen is almost bigger than the actual cafe, and I don’t want people to see us through the glass! Rolo can stay out here and turn off the music if there are customers and if he wants to see us he can look through the door, it’s huge!” Nyma whined. The others laughed and followed her to the kitchen. 

At first when the music started Nyma and Lance just stood there laughing, but then the chorus came on they both started dancing weirdly and singing along to the lyrics. They started with just moving arms and hands but after a few seconds they were dancing around like crazy while Shay and Rolo were clapping and laughing. 

Everyone in the bakery was to distracted by the dancing to notice the people entering the cafe.

29 of August 11:23

“Here it is!” Hunk said pointing towards a small shop called ‘The Balmera’. Apparently, Hunk sat next to a girl in Biology that told him about her family’s bakery/cafe, and since then he had been overly excited to go there. No one knew if the reason he wanted to go there was the pastries or the girl, bu it didn’t matter, Hunk was a good friend that would support his friends no matter what and they had to return the favor somehow.

When they entered the small cafe they heard really loud music, and smelled an absolutely amazing smell. There was no one standing behind the counter, instead there was a boy standing in the doorframe to what Keith supposed was the kitchen. The boy changed position and you could now see what was happening in the kitchen. There were two people dancing to the music, jumping around and laughing, Keith couldn’t see the faces of the people though. 

“That boy there reminds me of someone...” Shiro said, pointing at the door. “The boy in the doorframe, yeah he goes to our school, he is one of Shay’s friends actually and-“ Hunk started rambling but was cut off, “No, not him, the boy dancing. It kind o feels like a deja vu with this song and everything...” Hunk looked like he was thinking and then exclaimed “Oh yeah! It reminds me of Lance!” Keith looked at the boy that was waving his apron around in one hand and moving his hips. 

“Lance? With a part time job? That boy is to lazy to clean his own room!” Allura said in a harsh tone and Pidge giggled in response. “No,” Hunk said, turning towards them, “This song is a Taylor Swift song, and Lance would get up and dance like crazy to every Taylor Swift song! This is totally like him!” Hunk said as the song ended, Pidge just shrugged and put their hands to their mouth “WE ARE HERE AND WE ARE HUNGRY!”. The people laughing in the kitchen immediately became quiet, and the boy that was dancing before got so startled that he fell to the floor. Yep, Keith agreed that he resembled Lance is some ways.

Whisper shouting, as well as a loud “Ouch!” was heard from the kitchen and the boy that was standing in the doorframe went behind the counter to turn down the music. “Uh, hi. I’m sorry for the wait, my friend will take your order in a minute.” He smiled awkwardly and went back into the kitchen, clearly embarrassed. 

Keith glanced at Shiro, who was currently giving The still laughing Pidgeon a death glare. The boy who had fallen cake stumbling out of the kitchen, his head held low in embarrassment, “Hi, I’m so sorry for the wait, can I take your orders?” He asked, turning towards the wall to tie his apron. 

Allura walked up to the counter. “Hi, no worries we haven’t waited long. Actually, this is our first time here so I was wondering if you could tell me what’s good?” She asked as the brown haired boy were doing something with the coffee machine, still with his back turned agains them. “Yeah! He answered, we have a blueberry cheesecake and it’s absolutely wonderful! I sure that you’ll lo-“ The boy stopped talking as he turned around and saw Allura, who got just as startled. The boy was Lance. 

Lance was only quiet for a few seconds before he started talking again “Maybe not the cheesecake for you... you should try the brownie instead, it’s amazing!” He said smiling that typical ‘I-am-smiling-because-it’s-my-job’ smile. “Allura put on a really fake smile too and answered, “Yeah... That sounds nice, let’s try that!”. Lance typed something into the machine and looked up at Allura again. “Coffee with that? An expresso maybe?” He asked and Allura nodded, clearly irritated. 

Allura received her order and sat down at a table, it was now Shiros turn to order. “I think that the blueberry cheesecake would be perfect for you sir. That and plain black coffee?” Lance asked and Shiro could not do anything else than nod and clench his fists. 

“The peanut butter cookies and a glass of apple juice?” Lance asked as Pidge stepped up behind the counter, ready to play Lance’s game. “Oh I’m sorry I’m very allergic to peanuts.” She smirked and Lance nodded, thinking for a second or two before continuing. 

“Then what about the chocolate muffins with chocolate chips? You can never have to much chocolate.” The ‘You can never have to much chocolate’ is a thing that Pidge always says when being scolded by Shiro for only eating chocolate. A very smug move. She smiled wide and nodded “perfect”.

When it was Keith’s turn to order it seemed like Lance wanted him to start the conversation. “Uh... a cup of black coffee for me.” Keith said, staring at Lance’s hands that were resting on the counter. Lance was quiet, what was he doing? “We actually just took out some red velvet cupcakes from the oven, I’m not sure if there’s frosting on every one of them now, but I could easily prepare one in a few minutes.” He said he had started fidgeting with his hands as if he was nervous. 

“No, it’s fine. I’m actually lactose-“ Keith started to speak again and he didn’t know what to feel. Lance was acting like they had never met each other, but he still knew what everybody would like. He could almost hear Shiro having an orgasm because of the cheesecake. 

“Don’t worry, we always make a couple of gluten- and lactose-free ones.” Keith finally looked up and met Lance’s gaze, he looked hopeful, a small smile was playing on his lips and his eyes were as blue as ever. 

“Yeah sure,” Keith answered, smiling a little as well. Keith got his coffee and sat down next to Pidge, throwing a look at Hunk who was walking up to the counter. “Hunk, buddy, you’re finally here!” Lance said smiling. Hunk smiled and looked towards the kitchen “Yeah, please tell Shay that I said hi” Hunk said nervously and Lance’s facial expression changed drastically. “Oh...” he started before grinning and shouting “SHAY, THIS ONE IS FOR YOU!” Before giving Hunk a pat on the back and walking to the kitchen. 

“Shay came out and immediately blushed when she saw Hunk.” They exchanged quiet ‘hello’’s and started talking.

It was first when Keith sat down and took a sip of his coffee that he understood what just happened. Lance was like he was normally, he had not changed at all. Keith had always imagined that Lance would be changed, but no. Did this mean that Lance didn’t need Keith? Did this mean that Lance didn’t need any of his ancient friends and that he could just make new ones and everything would be fine? 

Keith suddenly felt angry, Lance could at least apologize! He did something stupid! By no! He just disappeared for nine months and then acted like nothing had happened at all! Keith felt sick, he needed time and space to think. 

“I just realized that I have some uh... homework to do, I need to leave,” Keith said, grabbing his jacket and stepping out of the cafe before any of his friends could protest. Outside, he took a deep breath and took out his phone too put on some music. Once his playlist was on he started walking, but after 30 meters he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to see Lance and his sweet smile. “You forgot this.” He said, holding up a colorful box to Keith, who stared at it like you would stare at an alien. “It’s the cupcake” Lance explained, “you paid for it after all.” There was that smile again, the one that made Keith melt inside and that he had missed so much. 

“Thanks...” Keith said, taking the box. “Okay, well enjoy!” Lance said smiling again before turning around and walking back to the bakery.

Keith opened the box and saw a red cupcake with pink icing and a cherry on top. Did they add it just because of the red or because of the taste? Keith asked himself, but he completely forgot that thought when he saw the words written on the inside of the box, clearly in Lance’s handwriting.

‘I’ve missed you.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you have any constructive criticism for me? I need to improve my English, pls help. :) 
> 
> Anyway, did you like this chapter? Do you like the story at all? Comments are always appreciated, so that I know how I’m doing!


	6. Ch. 6 Confusion and Mario Kart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith is really confused when Pidge comes over to play Mario Kart and helps him to sort out his thoughts. +Keiths backstory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keith's backstory is always sad, let's be honest.
> 
> I'm sorry for any spelling mistakes etc... English is my third language so, please forgive me.

Ch. 6 confusion and Mario Kart

30 of August 16.35

Keith was lying on his bed, covering his eyes with his right arm. Keith did not understand anything. 

Today Lance had acted like normal. When Coran had announced the camping trip that they would do Lance had complained that it would be cold at the end of September. Keith had heard Lance’s pretty laughable when he walked past the music room during lunch break. 

Keith had thought that Lance was fine without the group of friends that he had left nine months ago. But when Keith had seen the words written in the cupcake box, he had started doubting that thought. That sad smile that Lance had given him, was it even sad? Keith groaned, he should have listened when they went over how to read other people’s emotions in moral class. 

Keith removed the arm from his eyes and looked towards his desk where the box that Lance had given him was standing on. When Keith came home yesterday he had opened the box and stared at the cupcake for several minutes in frustration. Fist he ate the cherry on the cupcake and after that, it only took a few seconds for Keith to finish the whole thing. The cupcake was probably one of the best cupcakes that Keith had ever had, and that made Keith feel very annoyed for some reason. 

Keith felt so angry for some reason, but he just couldn’t figure out why. He rolled over from his back to his stomach to find a more comfortable position but did not succeed. Keith kept rolling around until the bed disappeared under him and he fell to the floor. 

“Jeez, what is with you today?” A voice said that made Keith jump to his feet and get ready to attack someone. “Hey, it’s just me.” The voice said again and Keith turned around to see Pidge standing to the right of the door. 

”Do not do that again!” Keith said, pointing a warning finger towards Pidge, who just laughed. “You are so evil!” Keith groaned and threw his head back. 

Pidge moved closer to the bead and jumped on it. “So... are you ready?” Pidge asked, looking at Keith with raised eyebrows, with that classic Pidge-smirk on her face. “Ready for what?” Keith asked, raising an eyebrow. “Oh come on Keith! I texted you like ten minutes ago to say that I could come over and race you!” 

Keith was the kind of person that wouldn’t open his texts until three days later and most of the time, he wouldn’t even bother answering. The only person that got Keith to answer was Lance, not because he was better than the others or because Keith liked him more than the others, it was because Lance would spam him like crazy until Keith finally answered just to tell Keith that he was bored. When he did that, it would annoy the shit out of Keith but after that Lance left, Keith had kind of missed it. 

“Race me??” Keith asked and earned an annoyed look from Pidge, who sighed and pinched the bridge of their nose. “RACE YOU! AS IN RACE YOU IN MARIO KART! WHAT DO YOU THINK?!” They screamed. “What is with you and screaming? Is there something wrong with your lungs?” Keith asked in a mocking tone. Pidge looked like they wanted to murder him. 

Keith did not have the time to blink before Pidge was all over him, tickling him. It took Keith less than two seconds to burst out in laughter and to start kicking his legs and trying to get Pidge off of him. If you asked Keith, his biggest weakness was the fact that he was so extremely ticklish, and most of the time he couldn’t do anything to stop the person tickling him, he was completely helpless and it annoyed him. Keith knew that tears would soon start pouring out of his eyes, that’s often when people stop tickling a person, but for Pidge it was the opposite. Pidge, being the evil creature that they were, found joy in seeing Keith like this, crying, laughing and begging her to stop. 

Keith finally managed to get out of Pidge’s grip and tried to get as far away from her as he could. Pidge stood up, as if nothing had happened and looked at Keith with that sweet smile that she used when se tried to convince people that she wasn’t the devil them-self at all. “So, do you want to race?” They asked pushing up their glasses further up their nose. 

Keith wiped away his tears and sent Pidge a death glare, “I am going to kill you for doing that.” He said in the scariest voice he could make. Pidge just smiled at him, “In real life or in Mario kart?” They asked. “In both!” Keith answered and began to run to the room where they had the TV to get the most comfortable place. 

Unfortunately, Keith’s mission for the best seat did not succeed. On his way, he bumped in to his mother and fell to the ground. 

Most sons are taller than their mothers when they are 17, but that was not the case with Keith. Keith’s dad had not been small, he was actually quite tall, as was Keith but his mother was still almost a head taller than him and it really scared him. 

Sometimes, Keith thought that his mother was an alien. The height and the fascination in everything that humans did has made him think that maybe, his mother wasn’t just a normal human. He had given up this thought when he learned that his mother grew up in the middle of nowhere and that both her parents were super tall. But Keith still wondered sometimes. 

“What are you doing running around?” Krolia asked, looking at Keith suspiciously. Keith, who was still lying on the floor mumbled some incoherent noises that did not make any sense before getting up on his feet.

“I wanted to sit on the comfy-seat, but now Pidge has probably already gotten it!” Keith said, glaring at his mother who was now laughing. 

Keith was still getting used to having a mother. Krolia had not been present for most of Keith’s childhood, she had left Keith and his dad when Keith was only four years old. Losing his mom had been hard for Keith, even if he later didn’t remember they much about her he always felt like something was missing, or rather that someone was missing. The loss of Keith’s mom had been hard on Keith’s dad too, and he drowned his sorrows in alcohol. 

When Keith’s dad was drunk he would get abusive and angry at first, he would mostly scream at Keith. He often screamed stuff like it was Keith’s fault that his mother left, but sometimes when he was more drunk or more sad than usual he would hit Keith. It was not that hard and not often, but it still hurt Keith, emotionally. 

When the alcohol finally ended Keith’s dad when Keith was fourteen, he thought that he would go into the foster system, that he would have to leave his friends and everyone that he loved behind. But then Krolia showed up, she came and took care of Keith, protected him and loved him. At first Keith was hesitant who wouldn’t be, but after a while he opened up and now, he couldn’t understand how he had managed to survive without his mom all these years. 

Keith loved his mom, and she loved him. She was highly overprotective but it didn’t really matter to Keith. 

“Keith... what is this?” Pidge showed up besides him with the box from ‘The Balmera’ in their hand. ‘Fuck’ Keith thought, he didn’t say anything, he just stared at Pidge with a scared expression on his face. 

“It’s from Lance isn’t it?” Pidge sighed giving Keith a look that did not seem that friendly. 

“Is Lance trying to hurt Keith again?! Because I swear! If he tries I am going to beat his ass-“ Krolia came up next to Pidge and gave Keith the same look, now Keith started to get scared. 

Keith’s mother was really scary when she got mad. When she heard about the fight, Keith had to beg her to not go over to Lance’s house to scold him or beat him up. 

“Mom stop! He is not trying to hurt me! I think that he is trying to apologize...” Keith said, glaring at Pidge and his mom and taking the box from Pidge. 

“Keith, don’t you understand?” Pidge asked and Keith shook his head angrily. “Of course he is trying to apologize now! Everyone at school sees him as a homophobic asshole, well everyone except Hunk, Nyma, Rolo and Shay, but I’m sure that he came up with some stupid lie to convince them that he did ‘nothing wrong’. He is trying to befriend you again just so that he can be seen as a decent person again. Do you get it?” Pidge seemed sympathetic, and Keith understood that all they wanted was for him to not get hurt again. 

Keith didn’t want to believe Pidge, but Keith wasn’t like Hunk, he did not try and look for the best in everyone. Keith knew that there was something in what Pidge had said. As much as he wanted to believe that Lance was truly sorry Keith knew that reputation was everything for Lance, and that he probably would do anything to get his back. As much as it hurt deep inside of him, he knew that what Pidge said was probably true.

”Okay, let’s just play,” Keith said, walking towards the living room. “Keith...” Pidge whined “I don’t want you to be angry at me! I just don’t want you to be sad!” They said. 

“It’s fine, I understand..” Keith answered and grabbed one of the Wii controllers. 

Keith lost, he always lost, Pidge was the master of Mario Kart, no one could beat them except Lance. Lance. Keith’s thoughts kept drifting in Lance’s direction.

Keith kept thinking about that sad smile that Lance had given him after handing over the cupcake. Was he really doing all this for his reputation? 

Keith barely got any sleep that night, he was awake thinking of the pretty boy they caused his mind so much trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you like this chapter? I wrote it instead of studying so now I'm stressed.
> 
> If you have the time and willpower you can always comment what you thought, it would be helpful. 
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading!


	7. Ch. 7 Cookies in progress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk and Lance are baking and talking about LIFE! (not really but therapy hunk is present)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey ho, It’s been a while, a few days where I’ve been lazy and had a lot of work. I’m sorry for this short chapter but I hope they you like it.

Ch. 7 Cookies in progress

30 of August 16:57

”Huunnk... are the cookies ready yet??” Lance whined from where he was lying on the couch. “Lance, this is the third time you’re asking over the span of two minutes...” Hunk sighed and shook his head at his desperate friend.

“But I’m hungry and sad!” Lance shouted, moving around on the couch until he fell off, “ouch, and now I’m hurt too!” Lance whimpered. 

Hunk looked at his watch, fifteen minutes until the cookies were to be taken out of the oven, and then about five-ten extra minutes for them to cool down... plenty of time for Hunk-therapy!

Hunk walked over to the couch and sat down. “Get up and sit down Lance.” Hunk said with a sweet tone. “Nah, I’m good here on the floor, it’s what I deserve,” Lance answered and lifted his arm and made a thumbs up. “Lance, I have the power over the cookies.” Hunk said in a threatening tone and two seconds later Lance sat beside Hunk on the couch.

“So, Lance, how can I help you today.” Hunk said in that sweet tone that he had started out with. Lance groaned, “I don’t like therapy Hunk, he’s so boring!” Lance complained. “Lance, complaining won’t help with your problems,” Hunk responded. 

“I changed my mind Hunk, I need your help to find a way to apologize to the others, whenever I see them I get super scared!” Lance said, covering his eyes with his hands. Hunk thought for a second before opening his mouth to speak, “But in the Balmera you seemed so calm, it seemed like you didn’t need anyone of us in your life and that you were the same.”. 

Lance opened his eyes in shock. “Really?! My heart was beating so fast and I was so close to crying! Like seriously just dropping to my knees and cry my eyes out because I missed you all so much and it seemed like you all hated me!” Lance said, staring at Hunk with wide questioning eyes. 

Hunk didn’t really know how to continue so he kept quiet, then he heard something on his phone. It was a message in the group chat from Pidge. 

Pidgeon: Lance is trying to befriend Keith to get his status back! He left a message in Keith’s cupcake box saying ‘I’ve missed you’! We have to take action! 

Hunk glanced at Lance who sat up looking at Hunk with big eyes. “What is it?” The tanned boy asked. “The cupcake box message has turned against you.” Hunk said and watched Lance as his face turned pale. Hunk showed Lance his phone and it resulted in Lance once again rolling off the couch and on to the floor. 

CyborgDad: Don’t let it get to Keith, he will only get sad again.

Pidgeon: I won’t, me and Krolia have already talked to him.

Cinnamon-roll: But what is Lance is serious? Maybe he really misses us?

Pidgeon: Hunk! Stop trying to find the good in everyone! There is none in Lance. 

Knifeboi: Can we please stop talking about this.

Hunk was just about to reply to Keith when he heard muffled sobs from the floor. 

Cinnamon-roll: Gr8 now you made him cry. 

Hunk shut off his phone and turned to the boy crying on the floor. “Lance are you okay?” He asked with the compassionate Hunk-voice. “No I’m not...” a sad voice said from the floor. “I am trying my best to hold myself up but in the end, I just can’t, the thought of moving home in a week scares me, what if I can’t be a good brother anymore? I feel like I’ve lost it all! Being gone and experiencing all that and everything there, it changed me. I still don’t know if I’m changed in a good or a bad way and I can’t figure it out! I want to be your friends again, but what if you don’t like the new me?” 

“What is the new you?” Hunk asked, he was interested in how his friend felt and he really wanted to help him. Hunk had noticed some major changes in Lances behavior, he had given up on flirting almost completely and he seemed much sadder. Sometimes Hunk felt like he got a glimpse of the Lance that was hiding from everyone, the sad and miserable Lance that was now lying on the floor, with his feelings exposed. Hunk wanted to know what was going on, why was Lance like this and what had happened?

“I-I don’t know! I just don’t feel like the same person, I feel so different but I can’t tell why and it annoys me so much! I just want to return back to normal!” 

Lance sighed but did not move from the floor so Hunk took up his cell phone once again, the one that had been vibrating for the last minutes.

Pidgeon: Keith? If you are saying that Keith is crying I have one question for you: WHERE? I am literally sitting next to him!

CyborgDad: I think that he is referring to Lance, not that I know how or why, but he is not talking about Keith.

Pidgeon: NO WAY?! Hunk, are you friends with Lance again? Are you taking his side? Hunk... WE TRUSTED YOU! 

Hunk could almost hear Pidge screaming at him through that message and he felt chills creeping up his spine. 

Knifeboi: Is he really using me? You have to tell me Hunk.

Hunk knew that he promised Lance to let him clear out his own mess, but since Lance begged him for help a couple of minutes ago Hunk didn’t see the danger or helping him a bit on the way.

Cinnamon-roll: We all know that Lance is actually kind and caring. In reality, he would not hurt anyone that he was close to, use your brains and think! Now if you excuse me, I have cookies in the oven. 

Hunk put his phone away in his pocket and glanced at Lance, now sitting on the couch. “You know buddy, there happened a lot of stuff when I was gone, some stuff that I don’t really want to talk about, but soon I’ll tell you. Because soon, I won’t be able to keep in any longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry again! It was really short, but please comment your thoughts about it and stuff? Idk.


	8. Ch.8 Coran Coran the gorgeous man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance runs late to a lesson and bumps into a special someone. Pidge confronts Lance to confirm her theories.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am finally free of school work for a few days so I am probably update more.

Ch. 8 Coran Coran the gorgeous man

1 of September 08:29

Lance was rushing through the hall, he had left the apartment too late and now he was running late. Lance cringed when he heard the second bell ring, now he was officially late. Lance wasn’t that worried tho, he had Coran, Coran wouldn’t be mad. At least he wouldn’t be that mad, but what if he was a person that’s super kind but when he gets angry he gets like really angry.

Lance had the classroom in his sight, that door was open. YES! He wasn’t that late! Although Lance noticed that the door was open, he did not notice the person standing in the doorframe, excusing himself for being late. Lance ran into the classroom shouting loudly “I’M HERE AND I’M NOT THAT LA-“ and almost immediately ran into another person, the two boys fell on the ground and both groaned as they hit the floor. Or the person that was now lying under Lance groaned, Lance felt weirdly comfortable on the unknown person.

“Fuck... that hurt.” Someone groaned beneath Lance, and as Lance recognized the voice he immediately stiffened and got up on his feet. He felt panic rising in him.

“Quiznak! Keith, I am soooo sorry! L-let me help you up. Jeez, I am really clumsy!” Lance laughed nervously and stretched his hand out for Keith to take it. Keith hesitated for a second and it almost broke Lance’s heart, but when Keith took Lance’s hand Lance felt a smile forming on his face and his heart coming back together.

Keith saw Lance’s smile and smiled awkwardly back at him which mad Lance want to curl into a ball on the floor and scream out all of his feelings at once, half of the school would probably be deaf after that.

“Ah! Lance, I see that you are using the word that I thought you! Quiznak is one of the most ancient swear words that we have in the English language. The word itself is actually very weird, it is uncommon for words to have a Q and a Z in it at the same time it actually-“ Coran was cut off in his speech about the word by a very stressed and panicked Lance, standing beside Keith, who seemed a bit lost.

“CORAN CORAN THE GORGEOUS MAN!” Lance shouted and laughed nervously as a wave of laughter broke out in the classroom once again, suddenly everyone was staring at him. “You’re not angry with me, are you?” Lance asked carefully playing with his hands in stress.

“Quite the opposite young man! ‘Coran Coran The gorgeous man... I like that name! From now on, I want everyone to greet me as that when you enter the classroom!” Coran answered, twirling his mustache between two of his fingers.

Lance sighed and opened his mouth to speak once more “No! I mean for running late, knocking over Keith here...” Lance said pointing at Keith “interrupting the lesson and swearing in here?” Lance asked.

Coran laughed, Lance was completely certain that Coran was the best teacher of all time, he had never had a better teacher. Ever since he was little, teachers had always disliked Lance, he was loud and could almost never sit still and do his work. Lance couldn’t memorize how many teachers that had sent him to the principal's office or yelled at him for forgetting his homework. But Coran was kind and considerate, and he actually had a sense of humor. With Coran, Lance had seen something that he had believed was only a myth before an interesting lesson.

“No, no, of course not my boy! We were just about to pair up for this exercise.” Coran said and pointed to the blackboard. ‘Pair up and discuss ideas for the bonding school trip, the ideas can be anything from games to food to where you would prefer sleeping.’ The words that were written on the board in Coran's fancy handwriting got Lance in a good mood.

In the beginning, Lance had complained about having a school trip at the end of the month of September. Then, summer was over! It wouldn’t be as warm and they would be sleeping outdoors? At first, that was a big No-No for Lance. But as Lance continued to think about it, the more appealing it seemed. Lance had checked the weather and it would still be pretty warm, Lance had also googled the place where they were staying. When Lance got to see the photos of the campfire and the tents, and the people in the pictures having fun, he smiled and told himself that the trip would be awesome, and they were only staying one night. One thing that pleased Lance was the fact that there was a big lake right next to the camping spot, and how Lance loved swimming.

“So... do you wanna pair up?” A voice that ripped Lance away from his thoughts. He turned towards Keith, who looked at him with a questioning expression.

Lance was really confused. Why would Keith ask him?! Lance wondered if he had done anything that would have changed Keith’s mind. He couldn’t think of anything that might have done that other than the cupcake box, the same box that had been declared a threat by his ex-friends.

“So, is that a no?” Keith asked, an unsure expression now showing on his face. Lance felt the panic rising in him once again, he raised his hands “No! I mean yes! I mean... I would love to be your partner.” Lance was crying on the inside. Could he not even talk normally? Lance just wanted to sink through the floor and never come back up. But then, Keith smiled and instead of the nervous feeling, Lance’s stomach was suddenly filled with warmth that went up to his face and made him smile widely.

“KEITH YOU TRAITOR! WHO AM I GOING TO PARTNER WITH?!” Pidge was standing up on their desk, pointing towards Keith and Lance. Lance was unlucky enough to look into their eyes by mistake and now he was probably scared for life, he almost had the impression that Pidge’s eyes were glowing red and that he could see a fire burning inside of them.

Keith just laughed, which also made Lance smile. A lot of things made Lance want to smile today. He was going to work late at the Balmera with Shay, and Rolo and Nyma would probably be there to eat the pastries that were left. Even if Lance would be forgiven by his ex-friends, he valued his new friends a lot, they had been really kind towards him and they were really fun to be with.

Keith and Lance sat down in the back of the classroom and took up their notebooks and pencils. “So,” Keith said, “what do you want to do on the class trip?” He asked Lance and smiled awkwardly. Lance could really not understand why Keith was acting like this, why was Keith even trying to be friends with Lance again after what Keith had done?

“I’d really like to swim! There is a lake right next to the camping space where we all could swim!” Lance said, he was like an excited little kid. Lance’s tone made Keith feel a lot more comfortable, soon Keith’s and Lance’s conversation was rolling. They were talking and laughing like normal, they did get some angry glances from Pidge every few minutes, but Lance couldn’t be bothered by them at all.

When the bell rang Lance wanted to cry, he didn’t want to stop with this, he wanted to continue talking to Keith. “We will continue with this next class and at the end of the lesson we will collect all the ideas and make up a scheme. Lance grinned, he would be able to talk with Keith more.

“I need to go,” Keith said and gained Lance’s attention “but it was fun talking to you.” He said and smiled before walking out of the classroom. Lance smiled as he put down this stuff in his backpack. Lance had a free period now due to the absence of his math teacher and the lack of replacements. Lance wasn’t sad, the opposite actually. Lance’s math teacher was an evil witch, she would never stop scolding Lance for everything. Last year, Lance dropped his pen on the floor and his math teacher sent him to the principal's office for disturbing the lesson.

As Lance was walking towards the library he suddenly felt someone pushing him against the lockers. “What do you want with Keith? Because if you hurt him again I am going to break your neck!” Lance looked down to see Pidge standing in front of him, although Pidge wasn’t the tallest, they were most certainly the scariest.

“Uhh... Nothing in particular?” Lance answered, his answer sounding more like a question. “I just want to apologize, what I did was really stupid and I really didn’t mean any of it, I was just confused and scared.” Lance continued, not breaking eye contact wig Pidge. Pidge seemed to soften up a bit but soon afterward, they returned to their angry self.

Instead of commenting on what Lance just said they asked another question. “Why did you leave town?” But this time Lance didn’t get the chance to answer because Pidges eyes lit up. “No way!?” Pidge screamed, earning a few stares from the other pupils in the hallway. “Did Keith impregnate you? Is that why you were gone? To have the child?” Pidge asked with a wide grin on their face.

“What? NO!” Lance did loudly, looking at Pidge like they were crazy. Pudge started laughing, laughing really hard. “Y-you should have seen your face!” They said as they wiped away a tear from the corner of their eye. When they was done, they returned to their serious and a bit angry expression, before smiling wide. “You are in love with Keith.” They stayed and looked at Lance who was now frozen.

I-I... w-what?” Lance stuttered and Pidges smile grew wider. “Oh my god! I knew it! I have to tell the others!” Pudge squealed and started running. Before Pidge had run very far they stopped and turned around. “I am still going to kill you if you hurt him again!” They shouted and then continued to run.

Lance sighed, he was fucked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you like this chapter? I loved Pidge in this chapter! What did you think of Pidge in this chapter? Comment below! I like ducks.


	9. Ch.9 Blessings from a Pidgeon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is dying and Keith is very confused. Pidge is a gremlin and the anti-Lance club is long gone. This chapter is also ft. The meme-lord, aka. MATT.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been almost a week since I last updated and I can't blame it on school bc it's been very calm the past week. I have noticed that I almost only write when I have schoolwork to get away from it... 
> 
> Sorry! Here you go! A brand new chapter!

Ch.9 Blessings from a Pidgeon

2 of september 16:26

Lance has not talked with Keith since the English lesson they had together, Pidge had been sending Lance weird looks from time to time though. Sometimes Lance regretted smashing his phone with a sledgehammer, that was a lot I money that he had spent a long time collecting gone. A phone would be useful in some situations, like now, he wanted to apologize so bad, but he was a coward. The whole situation would be much easier if he had a phone, it would be easier so sent a text or call to say sorry. But no, Lance wanted to apologize for face to face with the people that he missed so much if only he could gather the courage to do it. 

Lance sighed and rested his head on the counter. “Sleeping in the job lover boy?” The question sent made lance jump in surprise. “Jeez, don’t scare me like that again!” Lance said, ignoring the nickname he was called by. 

”Then don't sleep at work!” Shay scolded him. When Lance just responded with a sad look she sighed. ”Okay, Lance tell me about your problems.” Lance just groaned and hit his head on the desk, ”I have too many problems to just tell you now.” he mumbled. 

”Just man up and apologize to your friends, then we can all be friends and you and Keith can live happily forever after,” Rolo said, sipping on his hot chocolate. ”Not to forget Hunk and Shay!” Nyma added, taking a bite out if a blueberry muffin. Lance just glared at the two. 

”Since when do they get free stuff here?! I don't get free stuff an I WORK HERE!” Lance whined and Shay just laughed. ”You think that I don't notice you sneaking cookies into your pockets?? Besides, these are old.” Shay said lifting her eyebrows, earning another groan from Lance. 

”I have to help grandma with the blue cookies, Rolo, would you please make sure to hit Lance if he falls asleep?” Shay asked, with the sweetest smile on her face to make up for the evil thing she just said. ”I heard that!” Lance shouted as Shay retreated into the kitchen.

”WOOP! CUSTOMERS!” Rolo shouted patting Lance on the back, ”Time to take that smile out of the closet!” Rolo continued.

”Is Lance finally coming out of the closet?” A new voice said. It was a voice that sent shivers down Lances spine and made him want to hide in a very small space. ”Go away Pidge, we have a ’No gremlins’ policy here.” Laughter echoed through the cafe and Lance got a smack on the head. ”I swear to god Pidge! I am going to throw you out of here!” Lance said, burying his head in his hands. ”YEET!” ”Please tell me that that was not Matt.” Lance sighed.!

2 of September 16:37

”I'm sorry to disappoint you.” Another voice, that didn't make Lance want to run away, said. Lance lifted his head to see a pale boy with raven hair, smiling awkwardly. ”Jesus Christ, I am actually going to die,” Lance said slapping himself in the face. ”What?” Keith asked, looking really confused by now. 

”Fuck me...” Lance groaned, he was ruining everything. Why was he acting so weird?! What was happening to him? And why did Keith look so cute?! Keith didn't respond, he just continued standing there, lost. ”LANCE WANTS YOU TO FUCK HIM KEITH! GO FOR IT.” Lance was glad that there was no one else in the cafe at the moment, they would probably never come back after hearing Pidge shout. 

”I’ll be right back?” Keith said, but it sounded more like a question than a statement so Lance nodded. ”Yeah, take your time.

Keith walked over to Pidge and shot them a death glare. ”Two days ago you didn't want me anywhere near him and now you're telling me that I should fuck him? Stop confusing me and just tell me what to do! I am reliant on your advice!” Keith said, making weird gestures with his hands, the way he normally did when he was frustrated. ”You should not rely on Pidge. One time they told me to buy a strawberry milkshake instead of chocolate and I am traumatized.” Keith turned to the left to see Hunk, Shiro, and Allura enter the bakery, he heard whimpering from the counter. 

”Let's just say that I had a little ’talk’ with Lance, he's not that bad. I give you my blessing for fucking him.” Pidge grinned. ”Whoa, hey, what is going on here?” Shiro was standing tall looking back and forth between Keith and Pidge. Keith was already sweating in the presence of ’Dad-Shiro’ but Pidge seemed just fine, she was even smiling. 

”Oh, it's about the thing that I told you guys about this morning,” Pidge said, nodding towards Lance. Keith thought that they would be mad but instead, both Shiro and Allura were both smiling wide. ”oh, is that so...” Allura said. 

”Okay, someone needs to tell me what's going on here, why are you all not as anti-Lance as usual. You all need to stop confusing me!” Keith said, he said it quite loud, even Hunk, who had gone to the kitchen to talk with Shay must have heard him. Just as Shiro was about to answer, after sharing glances with Allura and Pidge, a large thud echoed through the bakery, coming from the counter.

”Holy shit! Lance, did you die? Can I have your apartment if you're dead?” Rolo was sitting on a chair a few meters away from the counter, he was staring at the someone lay in on the ground half visible behind the counter. Lance was lying face down on the floor without moving. 

”You are a really good friend Rolo, so considerate, did your parents teach you how to act towards your loved ones?” Lance’s voice was muffled by the floor and he was still not making any attempt at standing up. 

”Do you want me to help you up?” Rolo laughed as he looked at the miserable human being on the floor. ”Nah, just leave me here to die,” Lance answered lifting his head slightly to look around. ”Shit, I think that I'm bleeding...” Lance said, lifting his hand to touch the blood on his face. 

Keith, Pidge, Allura, and Shiro just stood there watching the show. Rolo was laughing and Lance did not seem bothered at all. He just fell for god's sake! And now he was bleeding? It became too much for Keith to just watch. 

A few seconds later, Keith was standing next to Lance. ”Let me help you up,” he said, taking Lance’s arm. Lance stood up with Keith’s help without protesting. ”Did you hit your nose when you fell?” Keith asked, taking a few paper towels and trying to stop the blood coming from Lance’s nose. ”No, I become dizzy when I get nosebleeds so it was the other way around. I fell when I got a nosebleed.” Lance answered looking Keith deep in the eyes. 

Keith had missed those ocean blue eyes that always seemed to shine, it had been lonely without them. Keith had always dreamed about pretty eyes, when he looked in the mirror and saw those familiar grey eyes looking back at him he always thought of Lance. Lance had such pretty eyes compared to Keith. Keith also wanted to have the power to ’wow’ people with a pair of beautiful eyes. 

”Your eyes are really pretty Keith. They are like storms, grey storms covering the sky. Sometimes when I look at them I expect to see a lightning in there.” Lance smiled, Keith wondered if Lance could read thoughts. How could he possibly say that in that exact moment otherwise? 

”You seem pretty dizzy.” Keith managed to answer, turning away from Lance to hide his blush ”Rolo, get off the chair, Lance has to sit down!” Keith said, shooting Rolo a ’move-or-I’ll-kick-your-ass’ glare. Rolo immediately got off the chair and rested against the wall instead. 

”I’m really sorry Keith,” Lance said, looking at Keith with those beautiful ocean eyes, but something seemed wrong. Lance’s eyes weren't shining anymore. They were still beautiful, but they were like the other day, sad. Something had changed in Lance, for the worse. It wasn't visible on the outside, but it was like you could see straight into Lance through his eyes and the inside was sad. The sparkling eyes that Keith knew so well were gone, they had been replaced with something sad. Keith had the urge to hug Lance, it was like an old instinct coming alive, but he stopped himself. 

”I think that the bleeding stopped...” Keith said, taking away the paper towels from Lance’s face. ”Yeah, they usually don't last that long,” Lance answered, looking down at his shoes. 

”Hey Lance, would you like to come with us to the apple festival on Saturday? it's the last day so we were planning to go altogether.” Keith asked and studied Lance’s face as his eyes grew bigger. ”A-are you sure that it would be okay?” He managed to choke out. 

Keith smiled ”Yeah, and you could bring Rolo, Shay, and Nyma. The cafe closes after six on Saturdays right? I'm sure that Hunk would be happy.” Keith noticed how Lance’s eyes seemed to shine for a second and a smile was plastered on the pretty boys face. 

”Thank you, Keith, I really appreciate it.” Lance’s smile grew bigger. 

The cute atmosphere was suddenly broken by a certain meme-lord. ”HAH! GAYY!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you like this chapter? If you have some feedback, hit me with it bc I honestly have no idea what I'm doing. 
> 
> I promise to update again soon, I hope. I an free of schoolwork so I have no excuse. 
> 
> Ηαvε α gr8 dαγ


	10. Ch. 10 The right way of fishing apples

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They go to the apple festival and everything is like before until they go on the Ferris wheel, where all Lance’s progress is ruined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s been a while, I’m sorry for the late update, I’m at this farm with no WiFi but luckily I just got more 4G so that I could update.

Ch. 10 The right way of fishing apples

5 of September 17:49

For the past three days, Lance had been feeling many different things. Confusion: What made everyone change their mind? Did Lance do something that he was unaware of? Did Hunk maybe say something? Lance had no idea and it was killing him.

”Lance! Get ready! The others will be here in ten minutes!” Lance jumped at the sharp voice yelled at him. “Jeez, why are you yelling at me? You’re not even coming.” Lance said, turning his head towards Shay’s brother. “No, but I don’t want Shay to have to wait for you, it’ll ruin EVERYTHING!” He said and Lance let out a small laugh. “Forgive me! For five minutes extra wait is the worst thing that anyone could experience!” Lance said, sarcastically, while putting his hand on his forehead for extra dramatic effect.

“Just go and get ready!” Shay’s brother sighed and pushed Lance away from the cash register. Lance took off his apron and hung it on the hooks in the staff room. 

Shay’s brother had graduated a while back and he was studying economics, Lance did not understand why, Lance considered economics to be the most boring subject possible, but Shay’s brother didn’t mind. He was taking online courses so that he didn’t have to leave his sister and grandmother alone with the business.

Lance took off his plain white t-shirt and slid on a sky-blue tank top instead, the color was identical to the color of his socks and went well with his white shorts. Lance had a marine blue hoodie, they would probably stay at the festival for a while and Lance easily got cold. Lance tried to tie it around his waist but when he looked in the mirror, it seemed a bit off. Since when did Lance care this much about the way he looked anyway? He sighed as he tried to get the hoodie to fit in on his body. After about six different tries, Lance decided to wear it around his waist after all. 

“Woah, you are really picky.” A voice said Lance turned around half panicking. “How long have you been standing there?!” He squeaked. SQUEAKED?! What was he? A mouse! “Long enough to know that it doesn’t matter how you wear your pull-over.” The raven teen smirked and took a step forward to where he was standing in the doorframe.

Lance couldn’t get himself to respond, he just stood there. “You look fine, now let’s go. The others are waiting.” Keith said, grabbing the brunette’s arm and dragging him towards the door. 

Lance could not believe what was happening, he had expected to have to work so much harder for this, but it had only been about two weeks from the moment he came back to his beloved hometown Long Grove. No one in Long Grove had changed a lot, which was really weird because nine months was a really long time. The only difference that Lance had noticed was people’s hair, while Lance himself felt like a different person. Did others see him as very different or was he the same old Lance? 

“Lance, there you are! Did you turn off the oven?” Shay said when he came out of the cafe with Keith. Lance had not been working in the kitchen all day, Shay should know that. “No, why would I? I haven’t worked in the kitchen at all today?” Lance answered. “Oh, s-shoot I’ll have to do that then!” Shay said and disappeared into the bakery. This was Lance’s chance, maybe only chance. Rolo and Nyma would meet them at the festival so now that Lance was alone with his old friends he had the chance to apologize. Lance was not going to let this chance go.

“H-hey, now that we’re all here I j-just want to say that... I..” Lance didn’t know how to continue, he felt so small. Everyone was looking at him. 

“I’m really sorry...” he said quietly. “I know that the things I said were wrong and that you all hate me now but I swear that I did not mean a single word! I was just really confused and I didn’t know how to react... it’s hard to explain why, but I just hope that you’ll all be able to forgive me one day. I don’t care how long it takes as long as I can be your friend again. I-I’m nothing without you guys...” 

Lance did not want to cry, but he realized how much his friends really meant to him. They were the ones to comfort him when he was sad, laugh with him when he was happy and sigh and groan at his dumb jokes and pick-up lines. Lance was miserable without them. 

Lance looked down at his shoes, waiting for a response. A few seconds went by and Lance was scared that they wouldn’t accept his apology but all his Doubs were pushed away when he was embraced. “We could never hate you, Lance,” Shiro said 

”Oh Hunk I found an extra piece of the chocolate cake that you wanted to try so... oh, did I interrupt something?” Shay was back from the bakery with a box in her hands. Lance and the other quickly pulled away from each other and reassured Shay that it was fine.

Lance was happy, he felt tears of joy stinging his eyes and turned away from the others who were talking about the chocolate cake. Lance felt a hand being placed on his shoulder as he wiped away his tears. When Lance looked up at the mysterious being, he smiled. After everything that Lance had said and done, Keith was still there, comforting him. Lance almost launched himself into Keith’s arms, his own arms wrapping around the pale boy. 

“I’m so, so, so sorry Keith. I never ever wanted to hurt you.” Lance said, his voice muffled by the other teens' clothes. “I missed you so much that I felt like I was falling apart!” Keith smiled at Lance’s words and wrapped his arms around the brown haired boy. “I know what you mean...” Keith said and stroked Lance’s back. 

The two boys pulled away from their hug and turned towards the others, who were all watching them. “Are you two done?” Pidge asked, with a smirk on their face, wiggling their eyebrows. Keith groaned “Let’s just go.” 

On the way to the apple festival, everyone was talking about what to do and Lance and Keith were discussing the best way to fish apples using their mouths. “No! You can’t grab the apple from above because it’ll just go further down the water! You have to try and take it from the side or from below!” Lance said, moving his hands like he usually did when he was caught up in an argument. “How is it even possible to take it from below?! That makes no sense!” Keith answered, confused. “You’ll see when I pull up more apples than you!” Lance said, grinning at Keith. “We’ll see McClain!” Keith said in a mocking tone. “Oh, it’s on!” Lance answered “race ya to the festival!” He continued and immediately started running. “Hey! That’s cheating!” Keith shouted after him, but when Lance continued to run Keith started too. 

Despite Lance’s advantage Keith managed to run past Lance but Lance was just behind Keith. “I... I give you... one last... chance to surrender!” Lance panted, Keith just laughed in response. Then Lance tripped. Lance gripped on to the first thing he could think of, Keith’s shirt, and dragged Keith down with him. 

Keith swore as he hit the ground, Lance landed on top of him and cursed, quickly climbing off his friend. “Quiznak! Keith are you okay?” He asked, kneeling down next to Keith. The pale teen rolled over from his stomach to his back and looked the brunette in the eyes. Keith didn’t say anything and Lance was scared that Keith would scold him. But Lance was wrong, a few seconds later Keith started laughing. “Lance you are an idiot!” He laughed “You’re not mad?” Lance asked, amazed. Keith didn’t answer he just continued laughing, his laugh was contagious and soon Lance was laughing too. 

The teenage boys’ friends found the two of them lying on the ground crying with laughter. When they were finally done, Lance stood up and offered his hand to Keith, who took it and got up on his feet as well. They stood there for a while, hand in hand and looking into each other’s eyes. When Lance realized what they were doing, he quickly let go of Keith’s hand and turned away his gaze. 

5 of September 19:47

They had been at the festival for a while now, Keith had won the apple fishing and Lance had won the shooting game. Lance had gotten an enormous green owl that he gave to Pidge. Hunk had walked around and showed Shay all his favorite stands and all the amazing food and now they had met up with the others for dinner. 

“You totally cheated with the apples, you must have used your hands or something!” Lance said to Keith. “My hands were tied behind my back! How could I have cheated?!” Keith exclaimed, and Lance just shrugged. “Now that everyone is done eating, why don’t we go to the Ferris wheel?” Shiro suggested everyone seemed to be okay with that so they all made their way to the enormous wheel.

“Maximum three people can go together...” Shiro said, “what about Me and Allura in one, Hunk and Shay in one, Lance and Keith in one and then Pidge can go with their own.” Shiro asked his friends in front of him. “I’m not sure that the owl I allowed on the Ferris wheel...” Lance said looking at the signs in front of the attraction. “We could just leave it with the bags and Pidge could go with me and Keith?” He continued. Pidge exchanges glance with Shiro and Allura and sighed. “No, I’ll stay down here, I’m afraid of heights.” Lance got a confused look on his face. “You wanted me to go skydiving with you, the only reason we didn’t do it was the price of the tickets. You’re not afraid of heights.” Pidge groaned at Lance’s response. “Could you just go? I’m giving you the perfect opportunity here! You shouldn’t doubt me, you should thank me!” They said, taking their owl and walking away from the line to the Ferris wheel. 

“I guess it’s just us then?” Keith said, “Hah, yeah I guess...” Lance answered, wiping his hands on his pants, he was sweating. 

The two boys got on the Ferris wheel and sat in an awkward silence for a while. “So...” Keith said, turning towards Lance. Lance knew what Pidge and the others wanted him to do, Lance knew what he wanted to do. 

Keith didn’t have the time to blink before he felt Lance’s lips on his own. Keith’s lips were soft against Lance’s and it didn’t take long for Keith to kiss Lance back. The two boys sat there for a while, lips moving against each other until Keith pushed Lance away from him. “Stop,” he said, “I know what you’re doing and it’s not fair!” Lance looked at Keith, what did he mean? What was Lance doing that was wrong. 

“You can’t just disappear for nine months and then pretend that you like me! You’re not interested in guys! That was made pretty clear before you went away!” Keith was angry, he was really angry because he knew that Lance was straight and giving Keith false hope was not fair. “I know that you want you ‘status’ back or whatever, but go kiss some other guy! I don’t want to be used as a tool for you to get your popularity back! So just stop!” 

Lance couldn’t speak, was this what Keith thought of him? That Lance cared more about his status than his friends. It hurt Lance to understand, he had ruined everything now. Everything had been back to normal and then his stupid feelings just came and ruined all the progress that he had made. 

“Keith, I-I...” Lance tried to explain that Keith was wrong but he got cut off. “No! Don’t talk to me anymore, I prefer real friends over fake ones!” They were almost at the bottom now and Keith got off the Ferris wheel and jumped off before Keith walked away he turned around. 

“I thought that you actually wanted to be my friend again, I actually had a really good time today. But I guess that I was wrong!”

Lance cried for the third time that day, but unlike the first two times, the tears welling out from his eyes now weren’t happy tears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rip Lance. I didn’t want to write this because now I have to start over with their relationship... but what is a story without problems appearing in the worst moments?


	11. “What happened to you while you were gone?”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is really sad and Hunk is there as emotional support.
> 
> +Lance backstory(when he was gone)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was sad stuff and I don’t know if I did it very well but I hope that you like it!

Ch. 11 “What happened to you while you were gone?”

6th September 09:06

Lance was a total wreck. Last night, the others had found Lance sitting on the floor crying, Lance told them what happened, as well as he could manage while constantly sobbing. Hunk then helped him home. Lance had not been able to see his friends’ reactions with the tears blurring his vision so he was also worried that they would be mad at him.

Lance often wondered what he had done to deserve Hunk, because Hunk was always so kind and caring. Everyone liked Hunk, it was almost as if Hunk could not do anything bad, ever. Lance wished that he could be like that, life would be so much easier. If Lance was like Hunk, he wouldn’t have acted out on his friends because of his stupid crush on Keith that he had denied for years fore the simple reason: Keith was straight. Lance didn’t want all the time he had spent denying his sexuality to be a waste, he had no reason to do it but he had been scared, no, he was scared. Lance was a coward an that was the reason for his current situation: A massive crush on his best friend. If Lance was Hunk, he would have accepted to just be friends with Keith because after all that Lance had done, what were the chances of Keith returning Lance’s feelings? Not big. Hunk wouldn’t have kissed Keith on the Ferris wheel and he wouldn’t have ruined everything.

But Lance wasn’t Hunk.

“How are you holding up buddy?” Lance envied Hunk, but he was extremely happy to have Hunk as his friend. “Everything is ruined...” Lance answered, his voice thin from crying. “Do you want to talk about it?” Lance nodded, he couldn’t keep it in anymore. Lance needed to get it all out and Hunk was the best listener.

Hunk sat down next to Lance on the couch with two cups of hot cocoa. “Hunk... I-I’m bisexual, and I have a huge crush on Keith.” Lance closed his eyes, he knew that Hunk wouldn’t mind but he was still so scared and he hated himself for it. “An that is okay Lance.” Hunk said and placed his hand on Lance’s shoulder. “You don’t sound that surprised...” Lance said, opening his eyes. “Well, it was kind of obvious, I’m not going to lie.” Hunk smiled, not a mocking smile but a compassionate smile, damn, why was Hunk the best, best friend ever?

“Lance, do you think that now might be a good time to tell me about the months when you were gone?” Lance froze as soon as the question left Hunk’s mouth. A few seconds went by before Lance sighed and sat up from his almost lying position.

“I met this girl...” Lance started, awaiting a comment on his shameless flirting from Hunk, but Hunk was quiet. “It was in Los Angeles, the big city was awesome, I felt like I could be whatever I wanted. I was trying really hard to forget everyone back in Long Grove so I started flirting with this gorgeous girl at school, but I guess that I was a bit out of my game at the time because she just laughed. She asked if I was new and then proposed to show me around school. We became friends really quickly, she was awesome...” Lance’s eyes had begun to form some tears at this point. “After only two weeks of knowing each other it was like I had known her for years. Her family was so kind and they let me stay for more sleepovers than I can count. One day I asked her how she always managed to be so kind and happy, even if people weren’t acting the same way towards her, she still smiled when she answered the question. I-I found out that s-she had lung cancer... an-and... that she wanted to make the best of her l-last months...” Lance was in-between words and tears were running down his cheeks. “I s-spent all that time c-complaining about my s-stupid crush while she was dying! I felt horrible! S-she helped me so m-much Hunk! She convinced me to accept myself and made me promise to o-one day man up and apologi...” Lance choked on his own words and stayed silent for a moment.

“It’s okay Lance, you don’t have to continue...” Hunk was trying his hardest to not break down as well, he had to be strong for Lance. After a few minutes, Lance wiped away his tears and looked Hunk in the eyes. “We had known each other for three and a half months when she died.” Lance had stopped crying, but he was shaking slightly. “I’ve never been that sad in my whole life. It was like I had lost a part of me, she was the only one I had there. Seeing her family so miserable broke my heart. I loved her Hunk, she was like my sister, my best friend. In a couple of months we managed to get as close as you and I are now. I went to Amanda’s funeral, I said goodbye to her family and they made me promise to come back and visit them and then I left LA, I couldn’t stay there any longer. I travelled to many different states and towns after that, I wanted to find another friend so that I could move on, but I never did. After a few months I decided to stop trying, because I used to have all these awesome friends back home and none of them were dead. I took Amanda’s advice and manned up.” Lance smiled, a sad smile that made Hunk want to wrap him in eight blankets and make him all his favorite food. “Everything was awesome for a while, I was so happy, you can’t even imagine Hunk. I felt like I had found my place again, but now I’m back at square one...”

Hunk couldn’t help it, he was crying. “Lance!” He sobbed before dragging his friend in for a hug. “I’m sure that Keith was just confused, he gets defensive when he’s confused! You are not back at square one! You and Keith will find each other and adopt lots of babies!” Lance smiled, he really wanted to believe Hunk, but it was so hard. Lance felt like everything he did was wrong.

“I don’t think that it’ll be that easy... I’m going back to my parents today, they are expecting the happy Lance but I am not happy anymore! How am I supposed to live up to their standards?! I-I can’t do it Hunk! Keith hates me forever!” Lance sighed and massaged his temples, his head hurt after crying.

“I should just leave again, I have enough money saved to survive until I manage to get a job, my parents won’t have to sponsor my travels anymore.” Hunk was just about to protest when Lance continued.

“And you guys seemed just fine without me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THAT WAS SAD.  
> Did you like this chapter? I hope you did. 
> 
> Have a nice weekend.


	12. Back to the good ol’ times

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge and Hunk get really angry at Shiro, Allura and Keith for being so mad at each other. 
> 
> In conclusion everyone is mad at each other and Keith shouts about his feelings when he is mad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m so sorry! This chapter took quite some time, I have no excuse, I am just very lazy. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter, I’ll try and update as soon as possible.

Ch. 12 Back to the good ol’ days.

7th September 13:16

Monday is back to school. Keith had been thinking about the visit to the apple festival constantly. He couldn’t get his brain not to think about the Ferris wheel, Pidge and their owl ant the ki- and he was doing it again. 

Keith knew that it was wrong of him to yell at Lance, the others had been telling him every time it was brought up. But Lance was the one who left after all! He could have just crawled back and apologized after a week or so like every normal person, but no! He had to leave for nine months! That’s a really long time! Had Lance even considered Keith’s feelings?! Before Lance left, he had hurt Keith. Keith had a really hard time fitting in and being accepted and what Lance said certainly didn’t help! Lance was just an obnoxious asshole who only cared about himself! 

“Uh Keith... are you going to continue torturing that poor plastic bag or are you going to eat your lunch?” Keith looked up and met Shiro’s gaze before looking down at his hands seeing the torn-apart plastic bag. “I think that Keith needs private therapy lessons with Hunk.” Pidge said and Allura nodded in agreement. 

“Speak of the devil...” Pidge said looking towards the door where Hunk now came through, panting like he had just run a marathon. “Code blue you guys!” Hunk shouted, waving his arms around. No one in the room reacted. “What’s a ‘code blue’?” Allura asked, raising her eyebrows and looking at Hunk, who sat down next to Pidge catching his breath. Everyone was quiet for about a minute until Hunk had stopped panting. “It’s Lance you guys, he wants to leave again!” Hunk said, moving his gaze from person to person in the room. “Let him. Who cares? He’s a douche!” Everyone was surprise to hear this coming out of Shiro’s mouth. 

“What?!” Hunk said, looking angrily at Shiro, who just now took a bite out I his sandwich. “I just think that no one wants or needs him here so why doesn’t he just leave?” Hunk a mouth was hanging agape. “What the hell Shiro?! He’s still our friend! He won me an enormous owl! If he wasn’t my friend, would he really do that.” Hunk was apparently no the only one upset about what Shiro was saying, Pidge seemed furious. “I don’t want Lance to hurt Keith again! The only thing that Lance cares about is his popularity!” Shiro had raised his voice and to be honest it kind of scared Keith. “I agree with Shiro, Lance brought this upon himself.” Allura smiled like it was a normal conversation and not a conversation about abandoning their friend or not. “I am literally going to slap the British out of you.” Pidge said shooting angry glances at the white haired woman. “Don’t talk to her like that!” Everyone in the room could sense that Shiro was getting really angry. 

“Well, you can carry on hating Lance but not if you still want me and Hunk to be your friends!” Pidge said, standing up. “Come on Hunk!” They said and left the music room. “I guess we’re going back to the old times...” Hunk said, smiling sadly to the people left in the music room before leaving. 

Keith had almost forgotten the times when Lance, Pidge and Hunk were their own group and Keith just stuck to Allura and Shiro. Keith felt very much like a third wheel when he was only hanging with the two older teens, he was much more happy when his so called ‘rivalry’ with Lance turned into friendship. At the thought of not longer spending time with Lance, Pidge or Hunk ever again made Keith want to curl up in a ball and hide under a blanket in his room with the lights turned off and the door locked, never to come out again. 

“Why can’t everything just go back to normal?” Keith mumbled, he buried his face in his hands and sighed. “It’ll all be okay Keith.” Keith couldn’t really explain it but as Shiro said that classic sentence that Keith had heard so many times, Keith just felt all his anger coming up to the surface.  
“No Shiro! It is not going to be okay! When I’m with you and Allura I feel like such a third wheel! I was finally really happy when we started hanging out with the others! I just want us to all be friends again! And I want Lance to actually like me and not pretend to like me because of his status! I want Lance to be my friend because he likes me!” Keith felt as if he was choking, was he going to cry? God no! He couldn’t cry at school! That would be so lame. “I want him to like me Shiro! I want him to like me the same way that I like him! I want to be able to kiss him whenever I want- I- I want to cuddle with him and comfort him when his sad a-a-and I want-I-I JUST WANT HIM TO LOVE ME SHIRO!” 

Before Keith could hear what Shiro and Allura had to say as a response Keith quickly grabbed all his stuff and ran out of the music room, he wasn’t sure if he was crying or not. 

Keith didn’t understand, why was everything like this? Everything was so great before Keith came out, he shouldn’t have done it at all. Everything would be normal and awesome if Keith had just chosen to stay in the closet. Keith suddenly tripped and fell face down on the floor, luckily it was a warm day and most students were outside. “Fuck..” Keith groaned and lifted his hand and touched his nose, a wave of pain shot through his face. Suddenly a hand reached out, offering to help Keith up.

“Here, let me help you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jeez, intense. Who is the mysterious person who shows up at the end of the chapter? Is it: 
> 
> Lance?
> 
> Shiro?
> 
> Shay?
> 
> Krolia?
> 
> Or me?
> 
> Find out in the next chapter!


	13. A new friend?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith got help from a mysterious someone who wants to be Keith’s friend and Lance is ANGSTY.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry for the late update and this time it wasn’t because of my laziness, I swear! I have lots of test now at the end of the year... but hey! At least I did update.

Ch. 13

7th of September 13:36

“Here, let me help you.” 

Keith looked up and was greeted by a cocky smirk. “Fuck off, I don’t want your help!” He said, trying to stand up but lost his balance. “Well it seems to me like you might need some help.” God! Keith hated that smirk! Keith felt dizzy, was Lotor really that bad? What had he done other than constantly teasing Keith and his friends, hiding Shiro’s prosthetic arm, breaking Pidge’s glasses and taking Lance’s clothes from the locker room that one time. To be honest, Keith really didn’t mind that one, having Lance walking around with only a towel around his waist was kind of nice...

“So... do you want help or should I just leave?” Keith sighed. “Shut up and just help me up already!” Lotor reached out and took Keith’s hand, helping him up from the floor.   
“I heard that it’s not going that well between you and your friends... do you want to talk?” Keith had a weird feeling about all that was happening, Lotor was never nice to him, why was he being nice now? 

“Fuck you.” Keith groaned, then he stopped walking and turned around, facing Lotor. “How do you even know that?! We had the fight like five minutes before you came here! Can you read minds or something?!” Lotor laughed. “A little bird told me about the fight~” He said and winked. “Oh my god! Were you spying on us?!” Lotor stopped walking abruptly and Keith glared at him. “What do you want from me? Why did you follow me?!” Keith pushed Lotor away from himself. 

“I just thought that you would enjoy some company, is that so wrong of me?” Lotor asked and pouted. 

Sometimes when Keith was around people he couldn’t focus on anything else than how much other people reminded him of Lance. Keith didn’t know if it was just something that he imagined but it really distracted him. Lotors flirtatious and dramatic behavior often got Keith to think about Lance. 

“Hey? Are you ignoring me or are you just spaced out, you are being quite rude.” Keith snapped out of it. “Uhm... no, I’m sorry, I just spaced out...” Keith answered and smiled awkwardly. “You know Keith, I think that you’re a really great guy. We should really hang out more.” Keith wasn’t really sure how he was supposed to react, he could absolutely use some more friends now but was Lotor really the best he could find? Keith had a really hard time making friends and meeting new people. Some people would say that Keith was socially awkward, and Keith agreed. Lotor did seem like a douche, that was true but to Keith, most people seemed like douches. What the hell! Keith thought and turned towards Lotor. “I could use a friend,” Keith said and smiled. How was this going to end? Keith didn’t know, he ignored the bad feeling that he had in his gut and continued to walk with Lotor. 

“We could share a tent during the camping trip with Coran?” Lotor asked, that was right, Lotor was in that class too... Just as Keith was about to answer that he already said that he would share with Pidge, he remembered. “Yeah, sure, I don’t think that Pidge wants to share with me anymore.” He answered and smiled. Jesus Christ! Could he not smile normally?! It probably looked like someone put a gun to his head and told him that if he didn’t smile he would die. 

“I’m sure that we will be great friends Keith.” Normally Keith would just have (tried to) smile and nodded or something, but something about the grin on Lotor’s face made Keith stay quiet. 

8th of September 16:29

“I am such a horrible person...” Lance looked at Pidge and Hunk who were both standing on the other side of the counter at ‘The Balmera’. “No, that’s not to-“ hunk smiled and tried to reassure Lance that everything was fine but was cut off. “No! It is my fault. I broke up the whole team! You should have just abandoned me! I’m used to be alone! And I’m not even alone, I have Shay, Rolo, and Nyma! Jeez, I feel super bad now! I can’t even-“ suddenly the door to the cafe flew open and two familiar people walked in. 

“I can’t believe that you really broke your nose!” Laughter echoed through the almost empty bakery, it was a very warm day so most people had wandered off to the nearest ice cream shop. “It’s just a small fracture, in a few weeks it’ll be like I never fell at all.” Lance was frozen where he stood, he couldn’t turn his gaze away from the two teenagers that that just entered the cafe. “Am I the only one wondering why Keith and Lotor just came in. Together. Laughing. Keith with bandages covering his nose. What is happening?!” Pidge nodded to show that they were as confused as Hunk regarding the two people laughing together. 

Lance wanted to cry. Lance often felt like crying these days, his hormones were overflowing. Maybe Pidge was right, maybe Lance was pregnant after all. Ever since Lance had come back to Long Grove, his emotions had been overflowing and he didn’t know why. Hunk had proposed that lance had been keeping his feelings inside for so long and that he needed to let them out, which was logical. 

Suddenly, Lance’s gaze met Keith’s. Keith’s eyes widened and he stopped talking. “Uhh..” Keith stood beside Lotor and locked eyes with Lance. Keith’s expression changed from surprised to confused to angry. Lance wanted to just disappear, he pulled his gaze away from Keith’s beautiful dark eyes. Lance swallowed hard and stepped away from the counter. “I’ll go get someone that can take your order.” He said, it was almost a whisper but anyone listening could hear it. “Why don’t you take out order pretty boy?” Lotor smirked. Lance didn’t answer, instead, he turned out abruptly and quickly walked into the kitchen. 

“What’s up with him? It’s like he’s the one who’s sad. He doesn’t have the right to that! He’s the one who hurt you, what’s his problem?” Lotor asked, looking at Keith with big questioning eyes. “Shut up Lotor, you don’t know anything about Lance!” Keith noticed a very small human being standing beside him. “I know more than you think! Keith here told me everything.” Lotor smirked and raised his eyebrows mockingly. “What the hell Keith?!” The small figure turned away from Lotor and looked Keith straight in the eyes, Keith would lie if he said that it didn’t frighten him a bit. 

“Can’t I have friends?! You left me! I have to be able to make new friends! At least Lotor is on my side! And even better, he doesn’t take advantage of me!” Keith talked loud and waved his arms around. Pidge sighed and pinched the bridge of their nose.

“Jesus Christ Keith! Lance was never taking advantage of you! He loves you! You’re one of his best friends! Why are you always so stubborn Keith? Can’t you at least try to think about other people’s feelings? Lance has had a really tough time recently and-“ 

“And you don’t think that I’ve had a tough time?! Do you know how much the things that Lance said hurt me?! I was devastated Pidge!” Inside the kitchen, Lance was sitting on the floor covering his face with his hands.  
It had suddenly hit him how much he had hurt Keith when Lance had seen Keith he seemed normal so Lance didn’t think that it was that bad, but it was bad. Keith’s angry voice was like an intense headache, and Lance couldn’t focus on anything else. 

After some time the cafe went silent, Lance heard the door shut and Pidge swearing for herself. Everything was so wrong. Lance hit his head on the wall and groaned.

He should have just stayed away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was kind of shitty but well! I hope that it was okay... :(


	14. Late again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is late to the bus for the camping trip with Coran and his advanced English class. Keith has some time to think about the past few weeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait! I really try to update once a week but it’s hard! But luckily I only have a week of school left. Anyways, enjoy!

Ch. 14 Late again

25th of September 06:24

”Has anyone seen Lance?” The man with the orange mustache asked the kids sitting in the bus. No one answered the question and people just continued talking as if no one had said anything.

“Jesus, that kid is always late...” the white-haired teen said and leaned back in his seat. “I hate taking the bus! Don’t you? They’re just so uncomfortable! I don’t think that I can endure two and a half hours on a bus! Couldn’t Mr. Coran have chosen a camping spot that’s closer? And also, did we have to leave on a Friday?! We are losing our whole weekend! Seriously, am I the only one feeling this? Keith! Answer me!”

The raven-haired teen turned his head to the boy sitting next to him. “Mmh... it’s just awful...” Keith sighed. Keith was happy that he had a new friend, Lotor was actually nice to him. Lotor accepted Keith and didn’t judge him (other than on his choices in clothing). But, Lotor loved talking and Keith liked to listen, it would have been a perfect combination, exactly like it was with Lance, but unfortunately,, Lotor didn’t understand like Lance. Lance could talk and talk for hours while Keith only responded with single words, very short sentences or just a sound like “Mhh...” or “Hmm...”, Lance knew that Keith was still listening, Keith just wasn’t a talkative person and Lance knew him well enough to know that. Lotor however, thought that every time Keith didn’t talk, or said very little things, Keith wasn’t interested, wasn’t paying attention or was mad at Lotor. Lotor always tried to make Keith talk even if Keith had nothing to do with the subject and this was really annoying. Keith knew that Lotor meaner well but despite how many times Keith had tried to explain that he wasn’t a talkative person Lotor would continue.

Jesus Christ! Could Keith not think of anything else but Lance?! What was wrong with him?! Keith constantly found himself thinking about Lance and he didn’t understand why. Keith tried so hard to just forget about Lance but, despite Lotor supporting him, it was really hard, especially when he saw Lance’s beautiful face almost every day at school, and constantly thinking about that pretty face.

Speak of the devil, Lance came running towards the bus with a really big backpack. “Hey, Mr. Coran! Lance is here now!” Someone said. Suddenly everyone in the bus was looking out the window to look at Lance, and what a sight! Moments later, Lance tripped and lost his balance. Lance fell forward on the concrete, he looked up at the bus from his state on all fours on the ground and blushed. Everyone on the bus was laughing, except for Keith and Coran. The only thing that Keith could think was ‘Jesus, that must’ve hurt.’.

Lance got up from the ground and rushed onto the bus. “Coran Coran! I am so sorry! I totally forgot where I put my shoes this morning! I had to search everywhere and I ended up late!” Lance laughed nervously and scratched his neck. “It’s fine my boy! Just try to remember where you put them next time. Go find a seat and we’ll be on our way.” Lance looked around the bus, Keith already knew where he would sit. Pidge had been one of the first students on the bus and had taken the back row for her and Lance. The class was pretty small so there were lots of seats that Lotor could pick, but of course, he had chosen the seats just in front of Pidge and, theoretically, Lance. 

Lance met Keith’s gaze but quickly looked away. Keith had noticed that Lance was behaving weirdly recently. Lance just wasn’t his usual self, he was shyer and he was constantly avoiding Keith, not that Keith ever tried to interact with him. Lance also looked so tired all the time, as if he couldn’t sleep at night.

Lance sat down behind Lotor. “Aw, man! Why did you take the window seat! I called dibs like two months ago!” Keith couldn’t see Pidge’s expression but he could imagine it oh so clear. “You lost your shoes? Really?” Pidge said and Lance sighed. “I was debating if I should call in sick or go last minute, I haven’t had a good nights sleep in like two weeks...” Keith was surprised, was Lance doubting to go on the trip? Lance had always seemed like the most excited one for the trip. “Lance I really think that you should see a therapist or something, you can’t continue like this! I can understand that it’s hard but you really need to face your problems!” Pidge said, Lance just groaned in response. “If I would see a therapist, my parents would have to know and they would want to talk about it. I’m already a burden to them and I don’t want to be more of a burden by asking them if I could see a therapist.” Lance answered. It was Pidge’s turn to the sight before they said something else. “Just try and get some sleep, alright?” 

Was Keith confused? Was something wrong with Lance? Lance had seemed normal ever since he had come back to Long Grove, except for the eyes, and the kiss, and some of the behavior. Okay, when Keith thought about it, a lot had changed in Lance, he seemed so sad somehow. What was wrong? Did Keith do something to hurt Lance? Was all this Keith’s fault? Were Lance’s feelings legitimate and by pushing them away Keith had hurt Lance?! No. Lance was not the victim, in this case, Keith was the victim. Lance had hurt Keith. Keith’s feelings were legitimate, Keith really wanted to be friends with Lance again but Lance pushed away those feelings and hurt Keith in the process! All of this was Lance’s fault, not Keith’s! 

Lotor was right, Keith had to stop thinking about Lance. Lance was no longer a part of Keith’s life, and Keith could manage without Lance, and Pidge, and Hunk. If they decided to be on the other side, they were on the other side. There was nothing Keith could or would do to change that. They all just had to adapt. This was Keith’s life now: Lotor, no Lance, and longer sentences! 

Keith could try to convince himself that that was what he thought, but in reality, he was concerned. Concerned about Lance’s well being. To be honest, Keith could never hate Lance, Lance had helped him through so much and been his friend for so long. 

And you couldn’t hate someone that you love, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> People have been commenting such nice stuff recently and I just want to say thank you! It really motivates me to write more! :)) so thank you so much!


	15. Who is going to get the biggest tent?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Really short chapter but important, basically Lotor being a bitch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg I am so sorry this is late and short! Jesus Christ! I swear that I’ll update once more in the next three days! A longer chapter! I’m so sorry!

Ch.15 Who is going to get the biggest tent?

25th of september 09:49

”Alright happy campers! Now that we’re all here and assembled we’re all going to pair up for the tents and grab a sleeping bag! And hurry up, we don’t have all day!” Corans voice was strong and got everyone’s attention. Lance and Pidge already stood next to each other with a sleeping bag each in hand, they wanted to be in advance so that they could get the best tent. So immediately when Coran was done talking they sprinted towards the tents.

“Look at this one Lance! It’s much bigger than every other tent! We’re sleeping in this one!” Pidge said, pointing at a turquoise tent in the middle of all the other student tents. Lance was glad that the tents were already up when they arrived, it would have been a disaster if everyone had to put up their own tent.

Pidge was already in the tent while Lance was a few meters away, but when he was almost at the entrance he was pushed to the side. Lance stretched out his arms to catch himself but found out that it was a bad idea when he hit the ground. When Lance had tripped in front of the bus, his hands had been scraped and cut by the ground, his palms had been bleeding but the bleeding stopped pretty quickly, but now he fell and his palms made contact with the rough ground and it was very painful. Lance groaned and winced in pain. Lance looked at his hands and sighed, they were bleeding once again and Lance thought that he noticed a small stone stuck in his palm but he wasn’t sure, he could be wrong.   
“What the hell is your problem?!” Lance said, tilting his head to look at the person who had pushed him to the ground.   
“What do you think Keith? I think that this tent is really nice, it looks big and comfortable and since we were here first we have all the right to take it?” 

Jesus Christ, Lance thought, he did not want to deal with Lotor right now. Lance didn’t understand Lotor, at first he seemed like a really nice guy but then he just went on to be an enormous douchebag. Lance remembered when Lotor broke Allura’s heart, Lance considered they to be one of the angriest moments in his life. 

Pidge interrupted Lotors never ending talk by sticking her head out of the tent.   
“Lance, I thought we agreed on a no guest policy? Are you already breaking our rules?” Pidge said and looked at Lance with a smirk, that turned into something that displayed disgust when she saw Lance’s hands. “Jeez... what happened to your hands? You should go and ask Coran for help.” Lane frowned.  
“I got pushed by this fella over here...” Lance answered and nodded towards Lotor. When Lance did that he finally noticed Keith, Keith looked really concerned and his gaze was directed towards Lance’s hands that were still bleeding. Suddenly Keith lifted his gaze and locked eyes with Lance, god how Lance lived those eyes. Lance wished that he could just stare into those eyes forever, forget about all his problems and sorrows, but no, Keith tuned his head and broke their eye contact. 

“I guess that this tent is taken, let’s go find another one Keith.” Lotor said, then he did something that surprised them all. Lotor put his arm around Keith’s waist and started leading Keith away from Lance and Pidge. Keith didn’t protest, not at all, in fact he gladly followed Lotor towards the other tents.

Lance felt something break inside of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m so sorry :(( forgive me


	16. Truth or dare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First Lance is sad.   
> Then Lance is fine.  
> Then Keith is confused. 
> 
> Lance is dared something very hard and cruel, but it’s not what you might think.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to post this chapter yesterday but something was wrong with my account, so it wouldn’t log in...
> 
> I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Ch.16 Truth or dare

25th of September 19:56

”Hey Lance, all the others have gathered around the fire. Coran is making hotdogs, are you coming?” Pidge sighed when all they got in response was silence and entered the tent. “Come on Lance, you can’t sulk the whole trip! We’re going to have fun together and forget about the douchebags and-“ Pidge stopped talking when she heard the silent sobbing from one of the corners of the tent.   
“Lance... are you okay?” Pidge asked and slowly approached the curled up person.   
“Please, Pidge! J-just s-stop talking to me and revive your friendship with Keith, Allura, and Shiro! I beg you!”   
“No Lance! Why the hell would I do that? I am not going to leave you, Hunk is not going to leave you! We are your friends and friends don’t leave friends!” Pidge said loudly, just by her voice anyone could understand that she was pissed. Lance had to stop looking down on himself.   
“I’m not worth it Pidge! I’m nothing! I should never have come back, I thought that I could fix everything but I was wrong! I was so wrong! Nothing can be like it was because I’m not the same as before! I’ve changed Pidge! I’m a whole different person now! A person that ruins everything, I’ve changed for the worse! The much worse!” Lance sobbed. 

Lance had always been like a brother to Pidge, he had been a huge part of Pidge’s life when their brother, Matt, moved to the other side of the country to go to college. Pidge had missed Lance a lot when he was gone. Pidge always had their doubts about Lance being homophobic, he had cried when Hunks mother got married and he had gotten a detention for punching a guy that had said something offensive about gay people in the face. Pidge just couldn’t believe that Lance actually had something against homosexuality and when they figured out the real reason, Pidge was so happy. Pidge could get her friend back, but hearing this, it almost broke Pidge’s heart. 

”You do not ruin everything! You are one of my best friends! I care about you so much! Just because you've changed doesn’t mean that is bad. I think that you have grown as a person, you care more about others and understand others better, you need to stop blaming yourself for everything! It’s not just your fault, you have the right to blame others and to feel sorry for yourself! It’s normal, and you’re normal.” Pidge sighed, they had noticed Lance’s different behavior ever since he came back and they were really worried. Lance just seemed to be so sad, all the time. The first thing Pidge noticed after that Lance came back was his eyes, they were the saddest eyes that Pidge had ever seen. 

“I know that you’re in love with Keith and that it’s hard for you, but you can’t let a crush ruin your life!” Pidge shouted.   
Lance turned his head and met Pidge’s gaze.   
“Do you seriously think that it’s just that?” He asked, his voice not louder than a whisper. 

“I go home, and my sisters won’t even talk to me. They’re mad at me because I left and they had to take care of Leo and help him with his homework after school while I was ‘Having fun in the big city’. And they’re right, I shouldn’t have left, I was selfish and stupid. I keep seeing the negative consequences of me leaving over and over again and when I try to look for the positive things I realize they there isn’t any! I wish that I would’ve just stayed here and apologized right away.” Lance sobbed.  
“I’m so sorry Pidge.” 

Pidge sighed again, she couldn’t change Lance’s mind, at least not now.  
“Well, sitting here all weekend sulking won’t change anything, will it? Come on, let’s try to have some fun, it will only get better from now on.” Pidge smiled and got a smile back from Lance.   
“Yeah, sounds good,” Lance answered and got up on his feet. “I’m glad that I still have you and Hunk as my friends.” He said and smiled towards Pidge once more.   
“We will always be there for you buddy.” They said patting Lance on the back. 

25th of September 23:01

“Okay, Romelle, truth or dare?”   
“Oh, ehm... I’ll take truth then.” The blonde girl said with a giggle.   
“If you had to kill one person in this circle, who would it be?” The blonde girl looked shocked.  
“Oh... okay... I-I don’t think that I could kill anyone...” She said and blushed, shy as she was.   
“You have to choose!”   
“Uh, I-I guess that I would kill you then,” Romelle answered and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.  
“Me?! But why?!”  
“Hey! That’s another question Pidge. It’s not your turn anymore!” Lance said.   
“Well, you are the shortest person here so your body would be the easiest one to hide...” Romelle said and looked down at the ground, earning a few surprised looks.   
“Jeez, I didn’t think that you would think that far ahead. Well! It’s your turn Romelle!”

“Truth or dare Lance?” The short blonde asked.   
“I’ll go with a dare to spice things up then!”

Lance had been having fun, he had been constantly avoiding looking, talking to and talking about Lotor and Keith. Lance didn’t want to brag about it, but he was really good at hiding his true emotions from people. Was that even something to brag about? Lance didn’t know he was confused and possibly high on the sugar rush that he got from all the s’mores that he had eaten. 

Lance looked at Romelle who seemed deep in thought.  
“Dare him to kiss someone!” Pidge shouted.  
“Shut up Pidge it’s not your turn!” Lance groaned, recalling how his last kiss had been. Romelle looked up and smirked. Oh no! Lance did not want to kiss anyone. Lance followed Romelles eyes as they wandered from person to person in the circle until they stayed on Keith. Lance swallowed hard, no, this was not happening! Jesus Christ, this was so cliché this was not ok- 

“Go and jump in the water.” For a second, Lance felt relieved but then he realized what the blonde girl just had said.  
“What?!” Lance asked the sweet, blonde girl that seemed so innocent but was actually evil on the inside.   
“I said, go and jump in the water,” Romelle said and smiled sweetly.  
“But I’m going to freeze!” Lance cried.  
“No buts Lance, jump in the water!” Pidge shouted and everyone in the circle started cheering.  
“If I die, it’s in your hands.” Lance sighed and pointed towards Pidge and Romelle. 

Lance started to take off his clothes, he stripped down to his boxers and approached the water. Goosebumps were already forming on his skin because of the cold wind.   
“Come on Lance! Don’t be a pussy!” Pidge shouted. Lance didn’t answer, he just closed his eyes and jumped in the water. 

The first seconds in the water was horrible, Lance felt like he was paralyzed and like his body was pure ice. Lance moved his arms and swam towards the surface. As Lance broke through the surface he took a deep breath and shrieked. The water was cold, it was really cold. Lance could hear people laughing in the background. Lance was trying his best to not sink but it was hart when your arms felt like blocks of ice.

With a lot of effort, Lance managed to swim to the shore and get up from the water. He jumped around on the ground waving his arms around, trying to get a bit warmer. When Lance was out of breath he just sat down on the ground and curled up in a ball, trying to keep the little heat that he had left in his body. The laughing didn’t stop.  
“How can you laugh when I’m freezing!?”  
Lance shrieked and looked at the crowd staring at him. Lance was just about to shout again when he spotted Lotor and Keith walking away from the campfire together, with their arms around each other. 

25th of September 23:26

“Let’s get out of here,” Lotor said, putting his arms around Keith’s shoulders. Keith nodded and shot a smile towards Lotor.   
Lotor had been really affectionate lately a Keith didn’t really know what to do about it, Keith didn’t want to tell Lotor to stop because he was afraid that Keith would lose his friend that Keith didn’t want to give in to the touches either. Lotor was a friend, nothing more. Keith didn’t want to be anything more than friends with Lotor. Keith didn’t want a relationship, he just wanted to get over Lance. 

As Lotor and Keith stood up, Keith wrapped his own arm around Lotor. He didn’t know why he was just thinking about why NOT to do exactly that but it was like a reflex. As soon as he felt Lance looking at them Keith’s arm just went and put itself there. Or was he trying to make Lance jealous? Jealous of what? If anything, Lance would pity Keith, ‘Oh poor Keith! In a relationship with Lotor! That must be horrible!’ 

“Let’s go to our tent,” Lotor said, leading Keith towards their tent, Keith followed without protest. 

The two teens decided that it was time to go to bed or go to sleeping bag. They both changed and rolled up their sleeping bags. Just as Keith was about to crawl into his sleeping bag he felt a hand on his shoulder. Keith turned around and a pair of lips smashed on to his own, Keith didn’t know what to do so he just stayed still. Lotor pinned Keith to the floor and continued to kiss him, Keith did not kiss back. Lotors hands found their way under Keith’s shirt and it was when the cold hands started going up and down on his torso that Keith realized what was happening. 

Keith tried to break free, but Lotor wouldn’t let him. Keith finally succeeded in turning his lips away from Lotor’s.   
“Get the fuck off me!” Keith shouted   
“Shit up and just go with it!” Lotor groaned and continued kissing down Keith’s neck. 

Somehow, Keith managed to kick Lotor in the stomach. Lotor let go of Keith and Keith got out of the tent as quick as his legs would let him. He continued to run until the tent was no longer visible.

What the hell just happened?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that there are a few mistakes in this chapter, I know which words that have mistakes but I’m to lazy to read everything again. Sorry! 
> 
> Also, I don’t know what this chapter was, is was just weird but please don’t sue me.


	17. “Love too!”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Everything turns out all right!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It felt good writing something that wasn’t angsty for once :)

Ch.17 “Love too!” 

26th of September 00:13

“Pidge? Lance? Are you two still awake?” Corans voice caught the two teen’s attention.   
“Uh... yeah, sorry about that. We’re trying to warm Lance up, he’s like an ice block.” Pidge said, quickly hiding their lighter behind their back.   
“No worries Pidge! I just want you to welcome Keith to your tent!” Coran said. Lance stiffened and stopped shaking for a moment.   
“Shit.” Lance groaned and closed his eyes. 

“Why do we have to take Keith?! Doesn’t Keith have his best friend Lotor to share a tent with?!” Pidge asked angrily. It seemed like Lance wasn’t the only unhappy one about the change.   
“Keith is not comfortable sleeping with Lotor and you two took the largest tent! You will have to share, I’m sorry guys.” Coran said and Pidge sighed.   
“Fine! But we want extra marshmallows tomorrow!” Pidge shouted and it was Corans turn to sigh.   
“Deal!” Coran said “Keith, go on. Sleep tight and try not to cause any trouble.” 

The zipper that closed and opened the tent was unzipped and a messy Keith could be spotted just outside of the tent. Keith’s hair looked like he just woke up and Lance could see hickeys on his neck.   
“Thanks for the help Coran.” Keith said and stepped into the tent. In the tent he was met by two pairs of eyes staring at him. 

“So... Lotor tried to put his dick in you?” Pidge asked casually and Lance started coughing while Keith turned red.   
“How d-did you...?” God! What was wrong with him?! He couldn’t even say a whole sentence! Keith probably looked like a big jerk in the other teen’s eyes. Keith looked over to Lance who was looking at him with a confused look on his face while shaking slightly. 

“It’s kind of obvious you know. You come here, to our tent when you kind of hate us saying that you’re uncomfortable with Lotor and you have hickeys on your neck.” Pidge said, looking down at their iPod that they had hidden when Coran searched all the bags for electronics. “So, are you ready to apologize?” They asked and looked up and met Keith’s eyes. Keith huffed.  
“I’m not the only one who needs to apologize!” Keith said and crossed his arms over his chest looking over at Lance who sat in the corner of the tent, curled up in a ball inside his sleeping bag. 

Pidge sighed and got up from their sitting position.   
“I’m going to the toilet, or the woods rather... anyways. I want you two to talk, as your friend and personal therapist I want you to both make an effort.” Pidge have them both a look before walking out of the tent. Jesus, what were they going to do? The two teenage boys looked at each other, no one said a word. Well, this was awkward... Keith thought. He was still as at Lance, but he had begun to doubt Lance’s intentions of regaining his status by kissing Keith. What if Lance really did like him, then Keith was the evil one. 

“I love you.” Lance blurted out, a second later his face turned to a dark shade of red, Keith was almost certain that his own face had the same color.   
“I’m sorry that I made you think that I wanted to use you and for everything that I said. The truth is that I’ve always had a massive crush on you but I’ve always denied my sexuality and my crush on you because I thought that you were straight and that you would leave me if I told you that I liked you. When you came out it felt like all the work I had done during the previous years was for nothing and I was so confused, angry, frustrated and hopeful at the same time and it all just went to hell. God Keith! You are such an amazing person and I know that I don’t deserve you but I really, really love you!” Lance was no longer in his corner, he had stepped out of the sleeping back and had crawled closer to Keith. 

Keith hated himself for being so bad at feelings. He never knew how to express them. He didn’t know which words to say or which gestures to preform. So Keith did the best thing that he could think of: he took Lance’s face in his hands and smashed their lips together. The kiss was filled with emotions, happy, sad, confused and angry emotions. Keith was definitely angry-kissing, he was angry at Lotor, at Lance and very angry at himself. Keith was angry at himself for not being able to tell Lance how he was feeling, and for falling for Lotors ‘friendliness’ , and he was really angry for not understanding how Lance felt. Keith felt Lance’s hands on his neck, playing with his mullet while Keith’s own hands were still cupping Lance’s face.

Keith didn’t know how long the kiss had lasted when they broke it.   
“Love too!” Keith said, his voice a pitch higher than usual.  
“What?” Lance let out a small laugh and caressed Keith’s cheek with his thumb.   
“I love you too...” Keith whispered, it was barely audible but Lance heard it clearly. 

“Why were we fighting again?” Keith joked and rested his forehead on Lance’s. Lance let out a small laugh.  
“Because we’re both stupid and really good at misunderstanding things!” Lance answered and smiled. 

“YES!” The sudden shout caused Lance and Keith to jump away from each other as fast as they could. They both felt relieved when they saw that the person who had shouted was just Pidge.   
“I KNEW THAT I WAS AN AMAZING THERAPIST!” Pidge shouted, preforming some sort of victory-dance but they were interrupted by one of their neighbors who told Pidge to shut it because ‘some people are trying to sleep!’

26th of September 01:28

Lance couldn’t sleep, he was exhausted but very exited at the same time. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted from Lance’s shoulders. Whatever he and Keith were, friends? Boyfriends? No-longer-fighting? Lance loved it and he wanted it to continue. 

Even if Lance did feel better he was still sad. He still had things to worry about, his school, his family and his work for example. And Lance was far from over Amanda’s death, he was on the verge of tears only by thinking about it. But he was positive, eventually, everything would get better. Lance would stop being so sad and start being as happy as he was before again. 

Maybe Pidge was right. Lance had changed for the better, he could understand people better and he valued others much more than before. It was a tough voyage with many unnecessary stops, but hopefully, the destination would make everything worth it. Okay, maybe not everything, some things would be really hard to get over and move on from, but Lance would become happier, much much happier. What Lance needed was patience, because it would take some time. 

Lance had hope.

THE END 

 

 

 

(Sike, I’m just kidding there is more angst ahead! But they will be the last wave of angst I swear!)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SIKE! ITS NOT THE END!
> 
> This could be the end, it could en well like this but no. I am going to write more angsty stuff :) but not much more I swear!


	18. Laughter and smiles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pure fluff, no angst <3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG OMG OMG I AM SO SO SORRY!!! This update is so late!! I’m in Japan and I am out all day long so I don’t have any time to write. NOT EVEN TO MY PARENTS! I stayed up very late yesterday night to write this. It’s very short too!!! Jeez I am so sorry!

26th of september 20:57

The day has passed by quickly, Lotor was sent home in the morning with a black eye. Turns out that listening to Lance an Keith in the tent was not the only thing that Pidge had done the previous night. During the day they had played in the water, tried to fish using sticks, thread and bread and acted out a passage of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’, it was an English class after all. 

Now, the sun was going down. Most of the teens were working on the campfire or playing in the water. Keith was sitting on a rock next to the water, he wasn’t really a fan of swimming or water in general but he had his swimming shorts on and a towel wrapped around his shoulders. Lance was already in the water, swimming around while Keith was just enjoying the last rays of sunshine.

Suddenly, a figure came up out of the water and sat beside Keith.   
“You’re not jumping in?” The brunet asked and hugged himself for warmth.   
“Nah, I don’t really feel like it...” Keith answered. “Are you cold?” Lance looked over at Keith again and nodded.  
“I forgot my towel in the tent and I’m to lazy to go there.” He laughed and smiled at the raven headed boy. Keith sighed and removed his towel from his own shoulder to place it on Lance’s shoulders instead. Lance smiled and blushed, wrapping the towel tighter around himself.   
“Thanks.” Lance said, almost like a whisper, very quiet but loud enough for Keith to hear 

“We haven’t really talked today...” Lance stated and looked towards the horizon where the sun was going down. Keith didn’t answer, instead he placed his hand over Lance’s hand and Keith noticed how he smiled at the small gesture. Keith was very proud of himself for being able to make Lance smile. Keith had understood that Lance was not at his best, almost the opposite really. So to see a simple smile on Lance’s lips, especially when Leith was the reason for that smile, made Keith really happy. 

“What do you want to talk about?” Keith asked and turned to look into Lance’s beautiful eyes. Lance intertwined their hands and looked down at them.  
“Do you like me?” Lance asked and shyly looked at Keith. Keith chuckled at the question.   
“I thought that we already settled that?” Keith smirked and stroked Lance’s hand with his thumb. Lance smiled again and sent a warm feeling down to Keith’s stomach. Lance rested his head on Keith’s shoulder. Lance’s hair was still wet so Keith shivered at the touch, Lance realized and was about to remove his head when Keith stopped him.  
“I know...” He sighed. “I just want to be sure...” 

Keith smiled and put his arm around the brunet and snuggled into his hair.   
“What about you Lance? Do you like me?” Keith asked.   
“Hey! I asked you first!”   
“I’ll answer you if you answer me first.” Keith chuckled and Lance sighed.  
“I’ll have you know that I really, really like you A LOT! You are handsome, and smart, and really sweet. And I would love it if you would want to be my boyfriend.” Lance looked up at Keith and smiled again.  
“I’d like that too.” Keith answered.

Lance was very happy. Finally, Lance could call Keith what he had always wanted. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. What a wonderful word. Lance wouldn’t stop smiling. Keith was smiling too and everything seemed perfect. So perfect that only a few meters away stood Pidge with her old iPod, snapping pictures of the two boys to send to Hunk (and possibly use for blackmail).

Ten minutes later Lance was almost shaking, so the boys decided to return to the tent and go to bed. Not one of the inhabitants of the tent was responsible enough to brush their teeth so Keith and Lance changed into their sleeping clothes, since Pidge was already changed, they immediately crawled into their sleeping bag and fell asleep. 

Lance was now changed and sat on top of his sleeping bag, admiring the shirtless boy in front of him. Keith was just about to put his shirt on when he spotted Lance looking at him. Keith dropped the shirt on the floor and stepped closer and bent down so that he was face to face with Lance.  
”H-i..” Lance said, His voice breaking.mid sentence. Keith suddenly felt lost. What was he supposed to do now? Jesus! Keith did not think this through enough! Keith opened his mouth to say something, no sound came out of him. Keith blushed, this was embarrassing... Lance’s eyes were so beautiful, Keith noticed that Lance was smiling as well. 

Once again Keith smashed their faces together and kissed Lance. Soon enough, Lance’s hands were on Keith’s torso, caressing Keith up and down. The kisses got deeper and Keith’s hands found Lance’s face and cupped it gently. All of a sudden, Lance started laughing. His laughing broke the kiss so Lance rested his head on Keith’s shoulder. Keith didn’t understand, did he do something silly? Why was Lance laughing so much?   
“Is... there something wrong?” Keith asked, he was afraid that he had somehow managed to ruin their relationship once again. But Keith’s concernés vanished as soon as he saw Lance’s face. Lance looked at Keith like he was stage most precious thing that Lance had ever seen. 

“I love you.” Lance smiled and wrapped his arms around Keith’s torso. Keith, still confused, waited for a few seconds before hesitantly embracing Lance.

There was no problem, everything was fine. Keith had not just ruined everything. 

Lance was happy.

A simple explanation, nothing complicated, he was just happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I said, I’m very sorry! This chapter was written very quickly and there were probably lots of mistakes! I’ll try harder I’m sorry. 
> 
> I hoped you liked the chapter tho, please commet what you thought of it!


	19. Splash Splash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last night of Corans camp, the kids try to pull an all-nighter (not working, just staying up) and Keith divides to put his boyfriend in an unconfortable situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY A THOUSAND TIMES! I’m so late!!! I was going to post earlier but last week I had no internet at all. Sorry sorry sorry!

Ch. 19 Splash Splash

 

” And look, there is the little dipper!” Lance exclaimed and pointed up at the sky. Keith smiled and looked over at his boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend. The word felt so weird in Keith’s mouth. Keith had never had a boyfriend before, this was all new too him. Keith and his boyfriend were lying on the slightly wet grass stargazing.   
Everyone at the camp had agreed on trying to pull an all-nighter because it was the last night of the camp. Coran had been hesitant at first but in the end, he had agreed to let them stay up and enjoy their last hours together, besides, they could always sleep on the bus home. The kids also had the whole Sunday to sleep and prepare for school the next day. So far, Lance and Keith were doing pretty good, Pidge and a bunch of other kids had already fallen asleep. Coran was still wide awake, having a lively conversation with some of his students over by the campfire. Lance and Keith had tried to lay as far away from the fire as possible to be able to see all the stars better.  
“Hey! Earth to Keith!” Keith quickly turned his head to look at Lance, who had a pout on his face.   
“Are you even listening to me?” Lance pouted. “I’m telling you about the wonders of the universe and you’re not even listening. That’s rude!” Lance let go of Keith’s hand, crossed his arms and turned away from Keith, who chuckled. It was obvious that Lance was very tired, when he got tired he got offended because of the smallest things.   
“I’m sorry Lance, would you forgive me?” Keith asked, siting up and placing his hand on the brunet’s shoulder. Lance got upset over the smallest things when he was tired, but he also forgave people without hesitating a second. So, Lance turned around and sat up beside Keith and rested his head on Keith’s shoulder mumbling something incoherent.  
“What was that?” Keith asked, stroking Lance’s cheek and rubbing circles into his back. When Lance didn’t answer him, Keith looked closer at Lance and noticed that he had fallen asleep. If Keith had not been extremely tired and on the verge of falling asleep, he had probably just let Lance sleep there on Keith’s shoulder, and he would eventually fall asleep as well, probably hugging Lance. They would be woken up in the morning by giggles and Pidge, taking lots of pictures of them with their iPod. But no, because sleepy Keith is what you would describe as evil.  
Keith gently remover Lance’s shoes, socks and pants. Keith also removed Lance’s watch from his wrist, shooting it a quick glance and seeing that it was 03:47. Keith was lucky that Lance was such a heavy sleeper, Lance didn’t even wake up when Keith carried him bridal-style. On Keith’s way he poked Pidge with his foot. Pidge shot up and looked around until they spotted Keith and shot him an angry glare. Keith mouthed ‘sorry’ and then nodded to Lance in his arms and then to the water. Pidge’s angry expression quickly turned smug and they quickly took their iPod from their pocket and opened the camera application.   
Keith and pidge passed Coran and the students by the campfire, who shot them weird looks, so Pidge carefully made their way towards them and quietly explained what they were about to do. Coran hesitated before giving them his approval. The people by the campfire followed Keith and Pidge as they made their way towards the water. Keith removed his sandals and his socks to be able to walk a bit in the water. The water was cold, and Keith flinched as he took the first steps in the cold liquid. When the water reached Keith’s knees, he let go of Lance. It took to seconds and then a loud shriek could be heard, and water was splashing everywhere.  
“ohmygodohmygodohmygod!” Lance whisper-shouted as he tried to stand up, he slipped and fell into the water once again. Keith had run back to the shore as soon as he dropped Lance to evade the splashing water, and now he was standing beside his classmates laughing at the cold boy in the water. Pidge, of course, was filming the whole thing. Lance had finally got up on his feet and he now stood hugging himself for warmth.   
“w-who…?!” Lance asked looking at the laughing teens with an accusing glare. Keith did not feel bad, not at all. Keith just stood there laughing with the others. Even Coran was smirking at the drenched, trembling boy. Pidge was still recording the scene and giggling in the background. It was a good thing that Pidge was filming with the flash on, that and the campfire were the only light sources and they permitted Keith to see Lance’s shocked expression.  
“I s-swear to g-god! Whoever did this is going to really regret it!” Lance said and took a few steps towards the group of teenagers. Then he noticed something, everyone was standing on land except one person. Lance was shocked, how could someone that he trusted do something like that?! It was evil! Pure evil!  
“K-Keith! What the h-hell?!” Lance shouted, his voice a pitch higher than usual. Lance felt betrayed, to say at least. Lance walked another few steps until he was standing right in front of Keith, who was still laughing like crazy, to Lance’s disappointment.  
“I’m sorry!” Keith wheezed, “I j-just couldn’t resist! I-It… so funny… you…” Keith snorted and brought up his hand to wipe a tear away from his eye. Lance suddenly found himself smiling a little, despite the cold wind that was blowing through his shirt. Even if what Keith did was totally evil and mean, he looked cute when he stood there laughing. Lance did find Keith cute, yes, but that did not erase the fact that Keith had thrown him into the water! Since no one seemed to be ready to help Lance get his revenge on Keith, so Lance took the matter into his own hands.   
“Keith! I’m r-really c-cold…” Lance whined and looked pleadingly at Keith with big eyes, “W-warm me u-up? P-please?” Lance asked. Keith stopped laughing, he was still smiling though, and stepped closer to the freezing boy. Keith was beginning to feel a tiny bit guilty when he looked his trembling boyfriend in the eyes, so to feel less guilty, he approached the boy with the sun-kissed skin and placed a hand on his cold cheek. Lance gave Keith a warm smile and took a firm grip on Keith’s arm.  
Coldness, the only thing that Keith could feel was the cold water embracing him and his muscles turning stiff. Keith quickly broke the surface and took in a long breath, noticing that his teeth were clattering. Keith could hear a soft giggle and looked in front of him. Lance was also sitting in the water. Lance had dragged Keith with him when he ‘fell’ into the cold water once again.   
“Great!” Keith said, “now I’m going to catch a cold!” Keith looked at Lance angrily, now Lance was the one who was smiling, a bright smile that immediately made Keith feel warmer inside. Lance raised his eyebrows at Keith and placed his hands-on Keith’s shoulders. As Lance leaned close to Keith’s ear and whispered softly into it a chill ran down Keith’s spine.  
“You started it sweetheart.” Lance whispered, and Keith’s blood rushed to his face. Were they already starting to use pet-names? Keith didn’t know how to respond. Was he to respond at all? He would just stutter and make a fool out of himself. He locked eyes with Lance and once again saw his boyfriend’s shining smile.  
“Come on, let’s get up so that the risk of catching a cold at least gets smaller!” Keith said and stood up. When he was up on his feet he offered Lance his hand and helped the drenched boy to get back up again. Instead of letting go of Keith, Lance held on to Keith’s hand with a firm grip. In fact, Lance started leaning on Keith’s shoulder.   
“Carry me.” Lance said, nuzzling his head in the crook of Keith’s neck.   
“What?! No way! I’m still mad at you for getting me all wet!” Keith said, gently pushing Lance away from him, earning a whine from the other boy.  
“You carried me all the way to the water! So why can’t you carry me back from the water?” Lance pouted and crossed his arms over his chest. Keith sighed and rolled his eyes. Such a drama queen! Keith thought and turned around so that Lance could jump on his back. Lance gladly did so and pressed a kiss onto Keith’s cheek.  
“Thanks babe!” The words once again made Keith’s face blush in a deep shade of red, to his content it was too dark for anyone to see that he was blushing now since Pidge had stopped filming and they were turned away from the campfire. In the background you could hear pidge arguing with Coran on the subject that Pidge should be able to keep their iPod.  
Keith and Lance returned to their tent and changed into dry and warm clothes. They both decided to give up trying to pull an all-nighter and to go to sleep instead, hoping that sleep would minimalize the risk of them getting sick. The two boys were still cold, so they decided to hang onto each other for warmth. When Pidge entered the tent a few hours later, they saw the pair hugging each other, huddled up in Lance’s sleeping bag, and since Pidge succeeded in convincing Coran that they could keep heir iPod, Coran was too tired to argue, they snapped a few pictures of the sleeping boys, snickering. But Pidge couldn’t help but smile at the sight, they were happy that Lance and Keith had finally made up and realized their feelings for each other. Pidge just hoped that the two boys would be happy with each other and that everything that bothered them, and all of their problems would fall into place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I plan on finishing the story pretty soon there will be like five more chapters I think? I don’t know, I’m still thinking. 
> 
> Please comment what you think! 
> 
> And again, I’m very sorry for this late update!


	20. Sickness and sibling trouble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith is sick and Lance decides to visit him.
> 
> Lance then returns home and had some family trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for any mistakes, I’m really tired, it’s really late where I live.

First of October 17:02   
Keith felt horrible, he could not remember once when he had felt this bad. It was expected that he was at least catch a cold after his and Lance’s bath in the middle of the night, but it was even more expected for Lance to get sick. But no! Lance was fine, living life as always, working at The Balmera and hanging out with Hunk and Pidge. Keith knew that it wasn’t nice, but he still wished that Lance would have gotten sick instead of him.   
“Keith, darling, are you alright?” Keith slowly opened his eyes and looked in the direction of the door. Even with the darkness in the room making it hard to see, Keith recognized his mother standing in the doorframe. Keith groaned, he had a massive headache and every time he tried to talk or swallow, it would hurt.   
“What is it!?” Keith asked, his voice raspy. Keith sounded irritated, which earned a glare from his mother. Keith lifted his arm and covered his eyes to escape the light coming from the hallway as Krolia opened the door wider. Keith didn’t even know what time it was, it could be midnight or lunchtime and Keith wouldn’t know.   
“Just because you’re sick doesn’t give you the right to use that tone with me young man!” Krolia said, crossing her arms, “I just wanted you to know that Lance is here, and I wanted to ask you if you wanted me to let him in.” After the camping trip, Keith sat down an had a long talk with his mother about Lance. It took a lot of tie for Keith to convince his mother that Lance wasn’t all that bad, he was a good guy inside and Keith loved him. To say that Krolia was no longer suspicious of lance at all was not true, not true at all. But at least now, Krolia wouldn’t kill Lance on sight, hopefully.   
“But now, I don’t care if you want your boyfriend here or not, I’m going to let him in whatever you say, and we’ll see if he can cheer you up!” Keith groaned, a bad temper was something that he and his mother shared, along with their stubbornness. Keith did not want Lane to see him all sweaty and gross, and Keith hadn’t brushed his hair in three days, he had to look like a complete mess. But Keith didn’t dare to argue with his mother in this state, he would lose his voice if he screamed.  
Keith heard his mother close the door shut and removed his arm from his eyes, only to be blinded once again by the door opening. Keith hissed and tried to crawl under the covers. The door closed again, and Keith peeked up at the shadow coming closer to him.   
“Hey sweetheart, I heard you were sick, so I brought you something!” Keith couldn’t help but feel happy at the sound of Lance’s voice, it made Keith feel all warm and fuzzy inside, despite his current state.   
“And what is that?” Keith asked with his low and raspy voice, which earned a chuckle from Lance.  
“This!” Lance said, and suddenly, Keith felt a pair of arms wrap around him and one pair of lips kissing him all over the face. Keith let out a laugh, or at least it was supposed to be a laugh.  
“And what is this supposed to be?” Keith asked and looked up at the dark figure that was supposed to be his boyfriend.   
“It’s love baby!” Lance said and wiggled his eyebrows, not that Keith could see that in the dark.   
Keith laid back in his bed and Lance laid down next to him and rambled on about everything that Keith had missed and about something funny that Hunk had done at The Balmera. Keith really wanted to listen, he tried to, but soon enough every word that came out of Lance’s was like a loud bang in Keith’s head.  
“Lance,” Keith started, it hurt his throat to talk so he stopped to cringe and drink some water. “I appreciate you being here, I really do, but right now, my head is killing me, and your talking isn’t really helping.” It was completely reasonable for Keith to want to be alone, he was sick after all, but Lance still felt his mood sink and the smile fade away from his lips, and Lance hated himself for feeling like that.   
Lance apologised quietly and left Keith’s room, on his way out he said goodbye to Krolia who glared at him in return. Lance felt somewhat guilty, he had no reason to be, Keith had said that he appreciated Lance visiting him, but Lance still felt as if he had done something wrong, of course that was a feeling that Lance grew more and more accustomed to. The lanky boy sighed as he made his way home.  
When Lance opened the door to his house a delicious scent filled his nose and brought a smile to the brunet’s lips. Lance concluded that dinner was ready, so he walked towards the dining room. His sisters were already sitting down at the table, both doing something on their phones. Leo was nowhere to be seen and his mother was carrying the plates filled with food towards the dining table. 

“I’m home now mama! Let me hero you put the table!” Lance said, rushing towards his mother to take the plates from her. 

Lance’s mother smiled and thanked the boy. Lance stepped towards the table to put the plates down when he saw that his sister Lucy had put down her phone and was watching him with a very uncomfortable glare. Lance tried to ignore it but his eyes always crept back to meet Lucy’s glare. 

“I don’t appreciate you trying to seem like this ‘little angle’ here. You come home after being gone for nine months! Nine months! And you expect everything to just be fine?! We spent nine moths walking around, wondering when our brother was going to come back and where he was at that exact moment. Do you know how much Leo missed you? How he cried and begged for you to come back? Do you ever think about how hard it was for us?! Neither me or Maria can replace you. You are his big brother, his idol. He looks up to you, and you just left to return more than half a year later!” Lucy was standing up, it was clear that she was furious. Maria, Lance and their mother were all staring at the upset girl across the table. 

“That is just awful Lance!” Launch cried. 

“You are an awful person!” 

Lance had been expecting this moment, he had seen the looks on his sisters faces when he walked inside a room. They despised him, and Lance could understand them, he could understand that very well. 

He knew that feeling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol angst ahead. 
> 
> Nani did you think of the chapter??????????????
> 
> Plez comment :;);)


	21. “Who is Amanda?!”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sad then happy then sad again. :/ 
> 
> Lance is sad and runs to Allura for comfort, Keith is still sick and everyone is worried.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, I’m a bit unsure about this chapter, but I didn’t know what else to write, I’m sorry. ALSO angst.

First of October 17:49

”If you don’t want me here, that’s fine.” Why was he suddenly starting to act up? 

“I can leave again if you’d prefer that!” No, stop it. Lance did not want to leave again, not at all. What was he talking about? 

“I you want me to be a good brother you could at least let me try! Instead of glaring at me every damn time you see me!” It was like Lance couldn’t control the words coming out of his mouth, this wasn’t how he really felt, and why was he so angry? He had no reason to be angry, he should just apologize. 

Lucy’s expression had gone from angry to sad, or disappointed, Lance couldn’t see the difference anymore. 

“Lance, I....”

“N-no... I’m sorry! I don’t know what’s wrong with me! I keep saying things that I don’t mean! I hate it! I’m so sorry, I wish that I could be a better brother, but I just... I don’t even know! I just feel like I can’t...” Lance’s voice was barely just a whisper when he stopped talking. 

“Lance... are you okay? You look like you’re going to cry...” Lance’s head turned away from his Mother and sisters to the door where he saw Leo, the little boy looked incredibly sad. 

“I’m so sorry Leo...” Lance whispered, his voice breaking mid sentence. Lance took off, running towards the door. He slammed open the door and ran out without looking back. He could barely hear the voices calling out his name. 

Lance stopped running after a few minutes, speed walking instead. Lance knew where he wanted to go, he also knew where he really should go and where he was not supposed to go. Lance did not choose any of those destinations. Instead of going back home, to Hunk or to the comfort of Keith’s arms, he was on his way to Allura’s home. 

First of October 19;53

Koolest Kidz and Shiro group chat

MouseQueen: Hunk, would you please explain who Amanda is? It is urgent. 

3,1415926...: Oh, we’re using this group chat now? I thought that you and Shiro wanted nothing to do with us?

MouseQueen: I still don’t. I just want to know why Lance came over crying and begging me to help him see Amanda again. 

KissTheCook: Oh no, this is bad! This is very very bad. I need to come over, is he still at your place Allura? 

Mouse Queen: Yeah? What is going on? Who is Amanda?

3,1415926...: Why is Lance crying? Did Keith already dump him? And why did he go to you?? You’re not even his friend anymore!!

KissTheCook: Pidge, please stop, this is serious. 

3,1415926...: How am I not serious?! 

MouseQueen: STOP ARGUING AND TELL ME WHAT TO DO!

MouseQueen: Who is Amanda and what do I do?! And what does all of this mean. 

3,1415926...: Screw you all.

KissTheCook: Okay, just try to remain calm. It’s a long story, and I don’t have time to explain it now, but Lance basically wants to end his life. Try to speak calmly, wrap him in some blankets and give him some warm milk to drink. AND TRY NOT TO PANIC I AM ON MY WAY.

3,1415926...: Shit, I’m coming as well and I’m bringing Rover. 

MouseQueen: HOW AM I NOT SUPPOSED TO PANIC. 

First of October 20:58

“Shh... Lance it’s okay. You-“

“N-no it’s not okay! I’m so, so, so stupid! I don’t even know where I came here! You are still mad at me and I don’t deserve you comforting me! Y-you are all s-so kind and I don’t deserve it! I DON’T DESERVE IT!” 

Lance felt horrible, just horrible. He wasn’t crying anymore but he was literally shaking. His eyes were red and swollen and the crying had given him a headache. He didn’t know why he went to Allura’s house. Maybe because he argued with his sister he wanted to search for comfort in another sister figure in his life. But that didn’t really make sense either dis ce Lance was also arguing Allura. Lance had expected Allura to turn him away, but no. To Lance’s surprise Allura took care of him, tried to calm him down. But the fact that Allura did help him just made him feel more guilty. Allura was supposed to be mad at him! It want right for him to just come barging into her home like that. 

“Lance, you need to stop doing this to yourself! You deserve all of our love and support. You are an amazing person Lance and I was wrong to ever doubt that you were able to care for and love Keith, I’m sure that you are the best boyfriend ever.” 

After Hunk’s and Pidge’s arrivals Shiro came. And Lance couldn’t deny that he was happy that he was no longer fighting with Allura or Shiro. It was a relief, and Lance could not deny that Shiro’s words made him feel a lot better. 

“Lance, if you really feel like you don’t want to live any more you really need to get some help. We could talk with your parents and see if they could arrange appointments with a psychiatrist or something.” Pidge was sitting right next to Lance and their dog Rover was lying in front of them, resting his head in Lance’s lap. 

“N-no I don’t really feel like that. I’m not suicidal, sometimes I j-just want to disappear. I feel like I need her in my life again, even if I didn’t know her for that long, Amanda was so important to me and she helped me understand myself and my feelings, she’s the reason that I came back in the first place. I feel like I have all these problems that I can’t solve and that I need her help.” 

“You know that we’ll always be here for you whenever you need to talk about anything.” Hunks voice was so calm and reassuring. 

“I know! But whenever I go to any of you for help I feel so incredibly guilty. I just disappeared for more than half a year and then I just come barging back into your lives with all of my stupid problems. I feel like Im just a burden” 

”Don’t think like that Lance, you’re not a burden. We all have our problems, you just seem to have more of them at the moment and we want to help you.” Allura said, he voice as sweet as sugar. It was a tone that Lance was not very familiar with.

“I am so lucky to have you guys as my friends.” Lance realized that he was tearing up again. 

“So, do you feel a bit better now?” Hunk asked and patted Lance’s back. 

Lance couldn’t answer with words so he just nodded and smiled. The smile was honest and Hunk was so glad to see that smile again. 

“Lance, if you want, you could always spend the night here, in case you’re not ready to go home yet.” Even though Lance would have preferred to take Allura’s offer and stay at her home for the night, he knew that he couldn’t take the easy way out this time. 

“No, I think that I need to go home and explain myself, I wasn’t fair to them.” Allura was about ya say something when a phone began to ring. 

Allura checked her own phone and saw some new messages in the group chat. 

KeithKogayne: Would you not spam while I’m sick please.

KeithKogayne: HOLY SHIt! Is he okay?! Oh my god I am so sorry. 

Allura smiled half-heartedly and showed Lance her phone. The tips of Lance’s ears changed into a differed shade and he smiled, happy that his boyfriend cared for him. But Lance’s.and Allura soon found something else to look at.

“Hello, this is Hunk, who’s calling?   
Oh, Keith, hi!   
Okay now, please calm down, he’s okay, take it easy.   
N-no! He’s not dead Keith! I told you!   
Yes, he is alive and okay. Do you want to talk to him?   
Okay, I’ll pass him the phone.”

Hunk put his hand over the phone and mouthed ‘it’s for you!’ To Lance, who nodded and took the phone from him. 

“Hi Keith, how are you feeling?”

“How am I feeling?! Lance! How are you feeling?!” 

“It’s okay, I’m feeling much better now. I think that I kind of overreacted because I have a fever? But it’s okay, you don’t have to worry about me.” 

“What are you talking about? Of course I need to worry about you! I love you Lance! And you scared the shit out of me. Please, I need you to know that you can talk to me.” Keith’s tone was so soft and caring and Lance felt warm on the inside.

“Thank you Keith, I love you too, but you’re sick and you need to rest.” Lance glared at Pidge who wiggles their eyebrows. 

“I’m fine! I’m totally fine, trust me. I’ll get better when I know that you’re okay. And besides, you’re sick too.” 

“Yeah, I’m about to head home, I have some things to sort out. Then, I promise that I will get some rest, but only if you do too.” 

“God, Lance, would you please buy a phone already! I want to be able to talk to you even when we’re not together.”

“I promise.”

Lance ended the call and said that he needed to go home, Hunk offered to drive him, but Lance declined to the offer. He needed some alone time. Lance waved goodbye to his friends and started walking home. 

As soon as his friends were out of aight, the smile on his face faded. He turned around and walked in the opposite direction of his home. He went to a park where he sat down on a bench. He didn’t want to go back just yet.

He did not have the courage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got the idea for this chapter in the comments, and it was a good Idea, I’m just not sure that I wrote it that good. Please comment what you thought about it, i might re-write it or something.


	22. Courage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Problems fixed   
> Ner problems   
> Robotic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHOOP I CAN VARELY KEEP MY EYES OPEN

First of October 22:57

Lance was freezing, he had been sitting on the bench for at least an hour now. He just couldn’t bring himself to get up and leave. 

Lance had been thinking, he remembered one day when he was about Leo’s age and broke his mother’s favorite vase. Lance had been so afraid of the consequences that he simply hid the vase under his bed and ‘forgot about it’. Lance thought that he was safe then, his mother would occasionally ask him if he had seen it and he would always reply that he hadn’t. On lie led to a lot of lies. Lance really thought that no one would ever know about the incident that he had with the vase, but then, a few months later he came home from school to face his angry mother, and oh she was angry. She had been cleaning Lance’s room and had found the vase.

Lance had been scolded before, but not like that. His mother was furious and kept on yelling about how important that vase was for her. Lance’s eyes searched the room for any sort of comfort, he knew that his dad wasn’t home, but maybe his sisters would be able to help him. Lance dramatically searched the room with his eyes and finally found his sisters, they were standing in the doorframe, looking back at him. Lance tried to get them to help him, but neither Lucy or Maria moved a muscle. They just stood there, shaking their heads and watching him. The bitter taste of betrayal was one that Lance did not enjoy.

After a few minutes of intense scolding, Lance was crying. And it was only then that his mother stopped and her soft side came back. Lance’s mother lifted Lance into her arms and tried to calm him. It took a while but at last, he stopped crying. Lance’s mother tried to explain that she wasn’t really angry because he broke her vase, but because he never said anything. Lance’s mother told him that next time he did something bad like that, Lance was to come to her and tell her immediately. And Lance promised to do so. 

That day, Lance learnt an important lesson. You shouldn’t try to hide your mistakes or leave them behind, because if you do, they will bounce back onto you, bigger. Whatever he did, it would become worse if he didn’t do anything about it. 

And that’s what Lance had done. For the past ten months, Lance had kept on just leaving all his problems behind and they had all become worse. At least he had taken on some of his problems and solved them. Lance smiled weakly at the thought of his friends, and Keith. Keith, Keith, Keith. The thought of his grumpy boyfriend brought a small smile to the drained boy’s face. All his friends had helped him so much both in the past and now, and that for Lance was proof. Proof that facing your problems is a good thing. 

And it was the thought of his friends that finally gave Lance the courage to get up and commence his walk home. To face another one of his problems.

First of October 23:46

Lance slowly turned the key to open the door, everyone in the house was probably sound asleep already and Lance didn’t want to wake anyone up. The brunet quietly pushed open the door. Lance was surprised to see that the lights in the kitchen were still turned on. Maybe, just maybe, someone had stayed up to wait for him, or they simply forgot to turn the lights off. Lance slipped his shoes off and walked towards the kitchen. 

“Lance? Is that you?” A whisper, Lance almost missed it because of how low it was but he did hear it. Lance smiled, this must mean that he still wasn’t dead to his big sister. Lance walked up to the doorframe and quietly responded. 

“Hey Lucy...” Lance watched his sister as she gasped and stood up quickly, cringing at the noise that the chair made. 

“I was so worried! I almost thought that you were dead or something before Hunk called, but then-“ Lance cut off his sisters rambling. 

“Yes. Hunk called about an hour and a half ago to check if you had gotten home safely. I was so worried, and he explained everything.” 

“Everything?!” Lance exclaimed, a little to loud and quickly put his hands over his mouth. Lucy nodded.

“We sure have a lot to talk about... I-if you want to I mean!” Lucy said, smiling half heartedly. Lance felt his cheeks heating up. He felt ashamed that he was not the one who had told his sister about his problems, but someone else had to do it! It made Lance feel truly pathetic. It was his sister after all, he should have the courage to tell her about his life.

“Yeah... Listen Lucy. I don’t want you to just forgive me because you know that I’m not in the best place right now. Because that still doesn’t explain my actions. I shouldn’t have left, but you have to understand that I am glad that I did leave. I learnt so much about myself, friendship and life in general when I was gone. I just want you to know that I have missed you a whole lot.” Lance smiled, Lucy smiled back, tears starting to brim in her eyes. The siblings both stepped forward, before hesitating for a second and then diving into each other’s arms. 

“I’m not forgiving you because of the ‘place that you’re in’ Lance, I’m forgiving you because you’re my brother and I love you. I can never understand what you felt, but I think I can imagine why you made the choices that you did.” 

“Thank you for putting up with me Lucy, you’re the best big sister a pathetic boy like me could ever have.” Lance laughed quietly. 

“You’re not pathetic Lance.” Lucy said, patting Lance on the back.   
“Hey Lance, mind if we talk about Amanda for a bit. I have an idea on how I might be able to help you come over her death a little...” Lucy gripped Lance’s arm and smiled a comforting smile. “I could make ya both a cup of hot chocolate?” 

Lance felt like someone squeezed his heart again when Lucy took up Amanda’s death, but he realized that it would me best for him to just talk about it. So he nodded.

Second of October 00:47

“Are you sure about this Lucy? I mean, I agree with you and I think that it would really do me some good, but what about mom? What about Maria? What about Leo and Dad? And my friends? What if they start to hate me again! I don’t want that! And Keith! We just got together! I can’t do that to him!” 

Lance was panicking.

“Relax, If they really love you, they’ll understand.” Lucy smiled and glanced down at her watch. 

“Oh! It’s already so late!” She said, standing up and looking around for something in the room. Lance remained on the couch with his empty cup of chocolate. 

“Ah! Here it is!” Lucy said and lifted something in her hands. She then went back to sit next to Lance again. 

“Here you go,” she said, handing her brother something.

“It’s my old phone, you can have it since I heard that you didn’t have one, and besides, no one uses it.” Lance laughed a little and took the blank object. 

“Thanks..”

“Oh! That’s right. You should probably call your boyfriend. He called a few times after that Hunk called and sounded really worried. He said that he wouldn’t sleep until he knew that you were okay.” 

“WHY DID YOU NOTT TELL ME EARLIER?!” Lance whisper-shouted, immediately concerned for his sick boyfriend that really needed to rest. 

Lance ran up to his room and took the piece of paper where he had all of his friend”s numbers. 

Lance quickly tapped in the numbers in his phone and put the phone to his ear. He hoped that Keith would be sleeping and wouldn’t pick up. But lance didn’t even have the time to listen to the first signal when he person on the other side picked up. 

“Hello? Who is this.” The voice was familiar and made Lance feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

“Keith, Darling, you should be asleep...” Lance said and lied down on his bed. 

“Lance... Lance! Is that you? I was so worried! You have to stop scaring me like that!” 

“You worry to much about me.” Lance smiled and hugged a pillow. 

“I can never worry TO much about the person I’m in love with, love.” Lance smiled at the nickname but quickly stopped when he remembered what he needed to tell him.

“Hey Keith...”

“Yeah? Is something wrong?”

“Well... yeah, and there is something that I need to do to fix that.” Lance scratched the back of his neck.

“And that is...?”

“I need to leave again,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mora angst on the way, and Will tjus me s like Jesus, i don’t remember What i just wrote, i feel retarded. 
> 
> Please Enjoy one of the last chapters
> 
> Sorry for the loads of misfakesvv


	23. Shay’s brother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The title is not what it’s actually about

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m still figuring out how I want to end this story.

Second of October 01:02

“I need to leave again.” 

“What?! Oh no, no, no, NO! You can’t leave again! I won’t let you!” Keith sounded angry. And sad, and disappointed and a bit sick.

“Sweetheart, I’m so sorry-“ 

“No! You’re not sorry, because you won’t leave!” 

“Keith please, calm down, it’s not good for your throat to scream when you’re sick.”

“My throat will be fine as long as you’re still here in Long Grove.” Keith whispered. He sounded so hurt and disappointed, it made Lance want to throw up. 

“Keith, you’re being very selfish...” 

“Oh! I’m the one being selfish?! You’re the one who wants to leave Lance!” 

“I’m only trying to do what’s best! I’m not in the best place right now, far from that, and I think that this could really help me.” 

Silence, nothing could be heard from the other end.

“Keith? Are you still there buddy.” Lance felt that he was close to tears. What if Keith would give up on him? What if Keith found someone else? What if-

“Just promise me that you’ll come back...” The voice coming from the other end of the line was choked up and the voice broke mid-sentence. But it still brought a smile to Lance’s face. 

“Of course, I would never dream of leaving you forever.” 

“I’ll see you tomorrow Lance, or today, it’s pretty late. I love you, take care. 

“I love you too. Sleep tight.” Lance smiled, before he realized something.

“Wait! You’re still sick! You can’t go to school!” 

Second of October 16:45

Lance was standing at the counter of The Balmera. He had convinced his mother that he wasn’t that sick, that he only had a slight fever that wouldn’t affect him much if he just took some medicine. 

Keith had not been at school today, and Lance was both disappointed and glad. He figured that Keith was way to sick to step into school that day, and he was happy that Keith hadn’t done it anyway. 

During lunch in the music room, Lance had told his friends that he was leaving once again. Pidge had really protested, they had said that it would be much better if Lance just went to see a psychologist. Shiro had remained calm, but tried to convince Lance that he could at least stay a few more moths to see if that would help. Allura had smacked Shiro in the head to quiet him and told Lance that If he thought that leaving again was best for him, than he should do it. Lance’s friends would always be there to support him. 

Hunk broke into tears and told Lance how proud he was. Shay has agreed with Hunk and Rolo and Nyma were just kind of lost, Hunk had to explain everything that had been going on, and they still don’t really understand after that.

Lance felt relieved that he had his friends behind him to support him, but he was still worried about Keith. Lance did not want to lose Keith, not in a million years! And Lance was so afraid that Keith would end up finding someone else. 

Lance sighed. The cafe was rather empty today. Hunk had promised that he would come by, but that was probably just to see Shay.

Suddenly, Lance heard the sound of the door to the bakery open. Lance’s head immediately turned to the side and his whole body tensed up at the sight.

“I’m going to ask you to leave.” Lance growled.

“No, please hear me out. I just want to say sorry.” Lotor looked very tired. He had bags under his eyes and his normally flawless hair looked like it hadn’t been washed in a while. He looked defeated.

“You shouldn’t apologize to me, you should apologize to Keith. What you did was disgusting!” Lance was angry at Lotor. What Lotor had done was unacceptable.

“I know, I know... But I don’t think that I can go anywhere near him without being punched in the face...” 

Lance was quiet for a moment, thinking about what Lotor had said, it was probably correct. 

“Yeah, you’re probably right. But I really don’t appreciate you being anywhere near me either. “

“I just want you both to know that I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry. I was so wrong, what I did was so wrong. And I’m sorry for ever teasing you, hitting you or just doing anything to make you uncomfortable. I think that it took the suspension for me to realize that you can’t just go around doing whatever. You have to think of the consequences. And now I’m trying to clear my history. Please tell Keith that I’m really sorry and that I won’t bother any of you anymore. I’m not asking for your forgiveness, I just want you both to know that I won’t ever do anything like that ever again.” Lotor smiled weakly and turned around to walk out the door again. 

“Wait!” Lance had stretched out his hand after Lotor. Lance, believe it or not, felt bad for Lotor. It kind of reminded Lance of himself in his worst place. 

“Err... Would you like to buy a cupcake. W-we have these really tasty ones called quintessence that I think that you would like...”

Lotor looked surprised, but his surprised expression soon vanished and turned into a smile. 

“Yeah, sure. That sounds nice.” 

Lotor left the store with a pastel pink box in his hands. And Lance felt good. He was happy that they wouldn’t have to worry about Lotor anymore, but also because he was able to brighten Lotors day a little. It made Lance feel kind of important. Despite all the things that Lotor had done, no one deserved to sad. The things that Lotor had done were absolutely unacceptable, but something else that was also totally wrong was to not forgive someone who had acknowledged what they had done wrong and that apologized. So yes, Lance felt good about himself. 

Second of October 17:23

Lance har switched stations with Shay and was now standing in the kitchen with Shay’s brother, putting frosting on cupcakes. 

Cupcakes had come to be the Balmeras speciality. A lot of people came by the small bakery to try their cupcakes. 

Shay’s brother had always been suspicious of Lance and his friends, there wonky one that he really seemed to like was Hunk. So when Lance and him were on the same station, they would just put on some music and get to work. The two boys rarely exchanged any words. Lance didn’t even know his name.

“Lance?” No, that wasn’t Shay’s brother that was just Shay.

“Yeah, what is it Shay.” Lance shouted back from the Kitchen. 

“Let’s change stations!”Lance was confused, he and Shay had just switched, and normally it was her brothers turn to stand at the counter.

“WhaT? But we just changed? And what about your brother?” Lance asked, and he heard a sigh from the shop. 

“He’ll get his turn, now hurry up and come out here, I got a decorating cupcakes craving!” Lance sighed and shot the other boy in the kitchen and mumbled a quick “sorry” towards the other boy in the kitchen before stepping out of the kitchen, frosting all over his hands and without taking off the pink apron that he wore. 

“Oh, please take care of the customers out there, and wash your hands.” Shay giggled as she passed Lance on he way to the kitchen. Lance raised an eyebrow, there was something weird about her. 

“Hello, welcome to The Balmera and sorry for your wait.” Lance said without even glancing at the customers, instead he hurried to the sink behind the counter to wash his hands. 

“Hi, pretty boy.” Lance’s eyes went wide and he hurriedly turned around, not bothering to wipe his wet hands.

“Keith!” He squealed. Keith was standing there, handsome as ever with a faint smile on his lips. He was wearing a long scarf that hid his whole neck and a black Bigfoot hoodie. Lance was so happy to see him, and was also relieved to know that Keith didn’t hate him. 

Lance ran around the counter and embraced his boyfriend in a tight hug. It took a second, but then Lance felt a pair of arms wrapping around his back and a soft hand stroking his back up and down.

“Why did you come here? Aren’t you sick?” Lance asked quietly.

“Because you really scared me you idiot! Besides, I’m feeling much better now. And I really needed to see you.” Keith mumbled into Lance’s shoulder. 

The two boys stood there for a while, even thought they had seen each other the previous day, so much had happened during that time, and both boys felt like they needed to hold each other a little longer than needed. They didn’t want to lose each other, none of them wanted to let go. 

But eventually, they did, but only when they heard a cough behind them. The quickly let go of each other and turned towards the sound. 

Lance felt a hand on his shoulder. 

“I appreciate that you have taken a liking to my boy, you have made him very happy, and when he’s happy, I’m glad that he’s happy.”  
Lance looked up and met a soft pair of eyes.

“Thank you Ms. Kogane, Keith makes me very happy too. 

Second of October 18:39

The Cafe did not have any customers at all, so Keith and Lance were sitting at a table talking while Keith was enjoying a red velvet cupcake. 

“I’m still going to beat the shit out of that fucker!” Keith said and took an agressive bite out of his cupcake. 

“He apologized Keith!” 

“But it’s still Lotor!” Keith said, mouth full of cupcake. Lance giggled and smiled widely. Keith swallowed the cupcake.

“Lance, I’ve been thinking...” Keith started, looking Lance right in the eyes.

“I want to come with you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did u like chapter uwu ??


	24. The end?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It has been a few weeks and Lance had left the town of Long Grove. He worries a lot and his thoughts are taken over by the decisions he had made and if they were right or wrong. 
> 
> In the end he comes to a conclusion, and the story ends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m really tired, please read the note at the end of chapter.

Twenty ninth of October 11:49

Lance was sitting in his car, he was parked at a gas station. Lance’s dad had agreed on letting Lance borrow his car for his little ‘trip’. 

Lance sighed, he was still so far from the goal that he wanted to achieve, feeling well, feeling awesome. The burned laid his head on the steering wheel. He was so tired, he had been driving almost all night. He wanted to be done with his adventure as soon as possible so that he could go home. He wanted to see his family again, he wanted to be able to look Lucy and Maria in the eyes and smile, a big old genuine smile. He wanted to play with Leo like before he left. 

Lance wanted to be happy and smile at every single customer that came into the Balmera, he wanted to have spa-days with his friends. He wanted everything to just be normal. No more worrying about anything and everything. Lance wanted to look his mother in the eyes and say “I did it, I came back and I feel better than ever before. Lance wanted to take Keith to the apple festival, go on the Ferris wheel and have that cliché moment that he felt that he deserved! 

The teenager sighed, he wanted to be able to look into Keith’s eyes when he’s back and just make Keith proud. Lance knew that Keith wasn’t happy about Lance leaving, but at the same time, he knew that Keith was proud of him for facing his problems instead of trying to ignore them like before. 

For the first time in a long time, Lance had a plan. He had a destination where he knew that he needed to go. He had some people to meet, some people that he shouldn’t just have left. Lance also had some people to come back to, his family, Keith, his friends, all those people were so important to him and he couldn’t just leave them forever. 

Lance lifted his head and looked towards the ‘shop’, or whatever you want to call it, in the gas station, there were already a lot of Halloween decorations in the window. Logical, since Halloween was only in a couple of days. 

Lance had decided to leave during the one week holiday that they had around the Halloween times. Oh well, he left a few days before the holidays even began, but that was just so that he had a little more time. You see, Lance had set a goal for himself. This time, he wouldn’t be gone for long. He wanted to be home as soon as possible, so he sat a time limit for himself. One week, maybe a week and a half. 

One week did not seem like a lot of time, especially compared with his ‘other one’, but Lance thought that that would be enough. He didn’t need a lot of time, because the things that helped him the most were back in Long Grove, they were back home. His family, his friends, everything. There was only one thing missing to his life, and Lance knew that he would never get that back. But he could at least try to cope with it better. That’s why lance was driving to Los Angeles. 

After his friends funeral, Lance had just took off, without saying goodbye to anyone, and Lance felt so guilty about that. Lance had gotten other friends there, and he regretted leaving them, especially since that had already lost one friend at that time. Lance needed to go back. He wanted to give them his number so that they could communicate, they needed each other, because they all understood each other. 

Ben, Lilith and Amanda had maybe known each other longer that Lance had known any of them but they were still so tight, all of them. They all understood each other because they all suffered from the loss of their friend. Lance had only known Amanda for three months, and if he reacted like that, he couldn’t even imagine losing Amanda after having known her for over ten years! It would be like losing Hunk! A total nightmare. Lance never wanted to experience anything like losing Amanda again. 

Lance also wanted to talk to Amanda’s parents, he owed them. They let him in to live in their home and then he just left. Amanda’s parents were wonderful. Very strict but wonderful. Lance had missed them, he had missed so many different people in the past almost-year, he had missed his mother, Amanda, Hunk, Allura, Leo... and so many others. Keith was probably one of those that he had missed the most. 

The night that Keith asked Lance if he could come with him was almost always on Lance’s mind. Lance and Keith had went separate ways that night. A lot of overwhelming emotions were flowing over both boys. Sadness, anger, fear, you name it. Lance had just wanted what was best for Keith in the beginning, and Keith didn’t like that. Keith had told Lance that it was okay to care about yourself for once in a while. Lance haven’t responded. The rest of the conversation was awkward. They did not come to any agreement that night, it was first two weeks later that they came to a conclusion. 

Lance’s time-limit. So that he wouldn’t be away for to long, and also the decision of leaving during the autumn-holiday. Lance didn’t want important school stuff to be missed. 

But Lance still wondered if he did the right decision with Keith. 

Suddenly, there was a know on the car window, and Lance quickly turned his head towards the noise. The brunet was immediately met with a soft smile and lance quickly unlocked the car. 

“Hey Sweetheart, I got the chips that you wanted.” 

Lance sighed,  
“I’ve told you to stop calling me sweetheart, it feels so weird when you do it!” 

The lovely sound of Keith’s laughter filled the car.   
“Trust me Lance, you’ll get used to it.” 

“I sure hope so.” 

Lance was still wondering whether he made the right decision, taking Keith with him. But Keith tried to constantly remind Lance that he had made the right decision, and that was starting to rub off on Lance. Lance was confident that he would feel much better with Keith in his side. 

“I really can’t wait for you to meet my friends!” Lance said, excited, as he started the car and took off. 

“I’m just worried that they won’t like me...” Keith mumbled as he opened the packet of chips and put one in Lance’s mouth, who quickly swallowed. 

“I’m sure that they’ll love you AT LEAST as much as I do.” Lance smiled and looked over at Keith, who was also smiling. 

“I love you too.” Keith said and put a chip in his own mouth. 

“I’m so glad that I could come with you Lance.” 

As soon as Lance heard this words, he was sure. He was sure that everything was going to be sorted out. Soon enough, the feeling of happiness would one again rule over Lance, instead of the crippling feeling of sadness. Soon enough, everything would be okay. Lance knew that he would always miss Amanda and that he would never forget her, but Lance also knew that he couldn’t go wasting his life on being sad. 

He needed to be happy. 

He needed to go back home.

And this time, he wouldn’t leave, he would have enough courage to not run away again, to face his problems.

He would have the courage to stay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY!! This is going to be the last chapter I think? Please comment what you think, I don’t know if I should write more parts, personally I think that this is a good place to end it. I am going to do an epilogue, that is situated about one yet in the future? But idk HELP


	25. Four whole seasons later.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is about a year later, Keith comes home from his summer holidays with his mom and see Lance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ONE YEAR LATER.   
> I am so sad but at the same time so relieved to end this once and for all.

Twenty fifth of August 17:35 

“Keith!! I missed you so much!” The brunet smiled widely and ran up to his boyfriend, standing on the porch of the house. 

Lance welcomed the raven haired boy with a tight embrace. 

“You hav been gone for so long!” Lance complained as he let go of Keith. Keith sighed and took Lance’s hand in his. 

“I know, I missed you too. Even though I enjoy some bonding time with mom, a whole month without seeing you guys was weird,”Keith sighed and smiled at Lance, but that smile quickly turned into a grin “even though I have gone longer without seeing you at all!” Keith laughed and Lance just shook his head.

“That was like, over a year ago Keith! Let it go!” Lance chuckled and lead Keith into the house, and Keith happily followed after his lover.

“Leo! Keith is home! Come and say hi!” Lance shouted and looked around,, one of Leo’s favorite things was to hide, it was pretty much impossible to know where Leo was at all the time. This time, Leo myst have been somewhere upstairs playing, because he came rushing down the stairs. 

“Keith!!” Leo screamed enthusiastically. The small boy jumped into Keith’s arms and hugged him tightly. 

“Whoa! Hey there buddy” Keith chuckled as he patted Leo on the head,”wow, you have grown a lot these past weeks.” 

Leo let go of Keith and nodded. 

“Maria said that I’m tall enough to ride the Ferris wheel at the apple festival this year!” 

“Is that so? Well I wish you the best of luck, and I hope that you don’t fall off.” Keith smiled and looked around, noticing that Lance had gone to sit on the sofa, and Keith decided to join him. 

“So, how does Lucy like it in college?” Keith asked as he sat down a few inches away from Lance, who seemed to be doing something extremely interesting in his phone. 

“Oh, she loves the college itself, she thinks that it’s located in such a beautiful environment and that the dorms are stunning. She is happy about her roommate too I guess, she hasn’t really talked much about her...” Lance said, turning off his phone.

“I was actually texting her right now about the food there, apparently, the food that we have here is much better.”

Keith laughed and told lance to send Lucy his best regards. 

Keith was really tired, he had been travelling a long way just before coming here. Keith and his mother had visited South Korea during the last month of summer vacation to experience a bit more of their heritage. Keith had really enjoyed being there, even though he had missed all of his friends a lot. 

Keith moved a bit closer to Lance and rested his head on the other males shoulder. 

“You’re not tired, are you?” Lance asked as he started stroking Keith’s hair. 

“I just travelled, how can you expect me not to be tired?” Keith mumbled into Lance’s beck. 

“But you have to have energy to go to the apple festival with me and the others tonight!” Lance whined and earned a groan in response from Keith. 

“Do we have to?” Keith asked and got a sigh in return. 

“Yes we do, it’s the only day that works for everyone considering work schedules and other things.” Lance said, “We talked about this already!” 

“Why do you even want to go to the apple festival this year? We’ve already seen everything. We could just stay here or at my place and watch a move or something, I am so tired.” 

The hand stroking Keith’s hair stopped moving and just laid still on top of his head. There was complete silence for a few second before Lance opened his mouth. 

“But, I love the apple festival. I go every single year because I love it so much! All the snacks are so delicious and I love.trying all of the different games.” Lance sounded quite sad, he still got really sad sometimes.

Lance had gotten much better in the past year, but there were still moments when sadness just took over him and he stayed locked in his room for some time, not even Keith could get him out when he was like that. But the majority of the time, Lance was happy, cheerful and had lots of energy. Ever since Lance went back to LA, everything had just fell into place, everything was working out and Lance loved it, what he did not love, was the thought of not going to the apple festival. 

“But you could find those snacks and games elsewhere Lance, come on!” Keith complained as he nuzzled Lance’s neck. 

“I wanted to go on the Ferris wheel with you...” Lance mumbled. 

“What?” 

“I wanted to sort of recreate the Ferris wheel moment that we had last year but with an immediate happy ending...” Lance looked away, he was blushing, as if what he just had said was weird or embarrassing. 

And Keith could only smile. 

Twenty fifth of August 20:07

“Yes! Finally! Let’s go Keith!” Lance was excited, like really excited. They were finally getting on the Ferris wheel .

The couple sat down and watched as the cart moved higher and higher up. 

“This is nice.” Keith chuckled and turned to look at Lance, who was looking out at the stunning scenery before them with wide eyes. 

“It certainly is, the view is beautiful.” Lance said, with his focus still laid on the nature In front of them. 

“Lance...” Keith said carefully. The tone of Keith’s voice caught Lance’s attention and Lance turned around to look at his partner. 

“Can I kiss you?” 

Lance smiled.

“Yes, you may kiss me.” He replied with a smile.

The two boys leaned closer and. Loser until there was no space between them. Keith’s hands went up to cup Lance’s face while Lance’s hands were resting on Keith’s shoulders. 

As that broke apart, Lance just couldn’t help but think about how happy he was that he had “had the Courage to Stay”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing this has been amazing! Reading all of the comments and writing in general. I’m norme very good at ending so I’m just going to end the story here and see how it goes. This was my first Long fan fiction and Ia so happy about that. I hope that you liked this fan fiction and feel free to give me some informtuon on how I could improve my writing but also please ehkcomment what you thought of this story.


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